The Ninja and the Princess
by VRWC
Summary: When hordes from Drakanada invade once more it falls to an unlikely band of heroes to save the world, if they can get along long enough that is.
1. History and a Warning

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: No matter what century I don't own Kim Possible

Prologue: History and a Warning

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

For more detailed information on any of the subjects contained herein please consult the specific entries relevant to your inquiry

-Excerpt from volume LXVIII of General World History-

For as far back as the oldest history records the world has been divided by the Rockwall mountains, these impassable spires of rocks ensured that the world north and south of them would remain separated but for a handful of passes that allowed only the scarcest information to pass between the two halves of the world. In the southern half of the world only the oldest histories record a time before the Three Kingdoms and even these records only state memories of the oldest people alive in those days as their sources. And but for a few brief instances the existence of the kingdoms of Middleton, Upperton, and Lowerton has been one of peace with one another.

The Rockwall Mountains themselves are not wholly devoid of life, high pastures, valleys, and plateaus dot their slopes and numerous tribes of nomadic herders make their homes here. Only in one place however do these peaks allow for agriculture and settlement on any sort of permanent basis. The realm that has arisen here is appropriately enough named the Rockwall Kingdom, barely one hundred fifty miles at its widest point this kingdom might be ignored by history were it not for the fact that the only passes running the length of the Rockwall Mountains have their ends at the borders of the Rockwall Kingdom.

North of the Rockwall Mountains was for many years a much more tumultuous existence, a constantly shifting patchwork of states and alliances writhed in a state of constant warfare. Eventually one state, known as Drakanada, slowly started swallowing the states surrounding it. This process continued and sped up over several generations and by the time Drakanada engulfed the last northern independent state its army was a massive behemoth that could not easily be stopped. Thus began what has become known as the First Invasion.

The people of the Rockwall Kingdom and the Three Kingdoms had no warning of the danger approaching them, their first sign of imminent crisis being Drakanadian armies marching through the mountain passes and fleets of ships appearing south of the Rockwall Mountains loaded with men and the materials necessary for war. This surprise strike allowed the invading armies to make great inroads inland and they laid siege to the capitals of the Rockwall Kingdom and Upperton among their many other conquests in the early years of the war.

However for all these gains this attack was unlike any Drakanada had ever made for south of the Rockwall Mountains was not a patchwork of weak states that would rather be conquered than cooperate. The Three Kingdoms quickly banded together and formed an alliance with the Rockwall Kingdom to resist the invaders and thus began more than a quarter century of unbroken warfare. Early battles saw squabbles among commanders from the four armies over who would have overall command of the battle. But as the strongest of all the allied kingdoms Middleton quickly established itself as the senior most partner of the alliance.

With the politics of the alliance played out the Allies began to fight back and the shock of such resistance allowed them to undo several key gains made by Drakanadian forces the greatest being to lift the siege of the Rockwall Kingdom's capital. The siege of Upperton however would continue until the very end of the war. For several years the war swung back and forth with the experience and cunning of Drakanadian soldiers and their commanders allowing them to win despite Allied soldiers outnumbering them in nearly every battle. Eventually though this advantage evaporated as the Allies relearned the art of war after many generations of peace, the great turning point was when a Drakanadian army launched an offensive into Lowerton towards the southern mouths of the passes through the Rockwall Mountains seeking to separate the Alliance.

The army laid siege to the city of Lowerton itself and had nearly captured the whole city in the fiercest fighting of the whole war when a massive counteroffensive was launched that cut off the Drakanadian army in the city of Lowerton. Devoid of supplies and reinforcements and now under siege themselves from an Allied army the Drakanadian army in Lowerton was forced to surrender. With this defeat the tide of the war shifted, Allied armies began to find themselves on the offensive rather than the defensive and the strain of supplying such an undertaking across an entire continent began to tell upon Drakanadian forces at the same time as Allied numerical superiority began to assert itself.

This however was not the end of the war for Drakanadian forces still occupied most of the Kingdom of Upperton and had entrenched themselves deeply. Momentum though would never shift away from the Allies for the remainder of the war and over the next several years Allied armies pushed forward liberating great swathes of occupied territory. The last great battle of the First Invasion was fought before the walls of Upperton, Drakanadian forces were loathe to abandon their last position of strength south of the Rockwall Mountains but when the dust cleared they had fled back to their ships and Drakanada itself.

Thus ended the First Invasion as a military conflict but its effects were not through with the world yet. The Kingdom of Upperton had been devastated by the war as had large parts of the Kingdom of Lowerton and the Rockwall Kingdom. The Kingdom of Middleton had escaped such destruction but not for lack of trying by Drakanadian forces to gain a foothold. Potentially more serious was the effects of the war on the governments. During the final battle the kings of both Upperton and Lowerton had been killed, along with their heirs. It seemed as though war might once again ravage the world but the nobility of both kingdoms eventually reached a compromise. Being unable to settle on one of their own to take the monarchy and having for years already been under its military command structure they sent emissaries to Middleton to ask its royal family to assume the mantle for the Kingdoms of Upperton and Lowerton as well.

The Rockwall Kingdom suffered a great deal from the war as well but its royal family retained a line of succession, though of necessity it maintains a close relationship with the Three Kingdoms to this day. This returns our history to the Kingdoms of Upperton, Middleton, and Lowerton. The royal family of Middleton accepted rulership of its neighboring kingdoms and though they retain de jure independence since the First Invasion the Kingdoms of Upperton and Lowerton have been de facto absorbed by the Kingdom of Middleton creating a new state known to its inhabitants as the Three Kingdoms.

Nearly five hundred years passed and the world recovered from the war, people returned to their lands and seeded their crops anew, towns were rebuilt and the people prospered once more. However all decisions made in Middleton were made with a wary eye turned to the north as Drakanada had never signed any surrender or armistice even and the threat of a second invasion remained an ever present threat. As part of its efforts to reconstruct the affected areas the Three Kingdoms provided funds for the Rockwall Kingdom to build a network of great fortresses across the northern mouths of the passes that stand to this day as the first line of defense against an invasion by Drakanada.

At the publication of this volume the Three Kingdoms and their ally the Rockwall Kingdom continue to prosper many generations after the First Invasion. King James Possible of the Three Kingdoms is yet another strong ruler in a line of strong and able rulers stretching back for generations, Crown Princess Kimberly seems well set to at the least continue this trend if not surpass her father when she assumes the throne. To the north the Rockwall Kingdom remains stable for the time being, there is as of now an issue of some concern between the two elder princess, Princess Connie and Princess Lonnie, of who will be named Crown Princess. Challenges such as this are nothing new and all signs are this will be weathered as have the others. There are however disturbing signs reported by scouts who venture north of the Rockwall Mountains, more activity has been reported in Drakanada than has been seen in generations and some have begun to whisper that a Second Invasion may be approaching.

**-Off the Western Coast of Drakanada-**

One of the first things taught in the Royal Naval Academy was never ever stand up in the longboat and while Lieutenant Will Du was normally a stickler for the rules, it was how he'd become a lieutenant at such a young age, in this case he decided to risk standing up in order to better peer into the foggy gloom. The young man wasn't even entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for as he attempted to pierce the dense fog shrouding the coastline, the orders that had come down from the King himself had been to take the small clipper into Drakanadian waters and then wait for two operatives to show with what was supposed to be critically important information.

Nor was his captain who had ordered him to take the longboat into waters too shallow for the ship to enter entirely sure what they had been sent here for, precious few Kingdom ships entered Drakanadian waters and precious fewer still returned. Their trip however had been almost entirely uneventful, they had set off from the great port of Upperton and sailed around the southern tip of the Three Kingdoms, from there they had sailed up the western coast. It had taken several weeks as the foothills of the Rockwall Mountains began and steadily rose into the great spires of rock that divided the world, great cliffs plunging straight into the sea. Eventually though the mountains had begun to fall into their northern foothills and the crew knew they were seeing the coastline of Drakanada. The captain had ordered double watches and for all the men to be on extra alert but it was an order that had proven almost useless as the men were already doing just that.

What little they had seen of Drakanada as they hugged the coastline was strangely familiar and yet almost unrecognizable. The small communities they'd seen dotting the landscape could have been taken from anywhere in the Three Kingdoms on the surface. The differences though were quite easy to spot and readily apparent, where even the smallest community in the Three Kingdoms was always bustling with traffic going in and out and people going to and fro, they had only seen one caravan going between villages once they'd gotten north of the Rockwall Mountains and it was easy enough to recognize it as a military caravan. The emptiness of the landscape had been only one of the many things that had disconcerted the crew as they sailed north, the land itself seemed to be somehow less vibrant than the lands they had come from. Grasses and trees seemed to struggle to take root in the land and it appeared to the whole crew as though the whole of this strange land was bathed in a pale imitation of reality.

All of them knew though how real the danger at any given moment was, five centuries had passed since the First Invasion but every citizen of the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom knew that peace could be shattered at any moment as it had been for their ancestors. It was a particular risk this far from the Three Kingdoms, south of the Rockwall Mountains they would be able to rely on the power of the Royal Navy to ward off any attackers, but in these waters they were very much alone. Especially in waters to the west of the Three Kingdoms, Upperton was the largest port in the world and was on the eastern coast of the realm so consequently most shipping occurred in eastern waters. There was some limited safety in that they knew Drakanadian ships were also more likely to patrol in the east rather than come looking for them but that was scant comfort to men in a longboat in fog so thick there were times the men at the back of the boat could not see the front.

Were the weather not so gloomy Lieutenant Du would have almost certainly taken the opportunity to study this strange land more. As odd and unsettling as it was few people had ever seen Drakanada and returned to speak of it and as a member of the Royal Navy Will Du saw it as part of his duty to observe and report on situations of interest. Certainly any information on the greatest threat to the continued freedom of the Three Kingdoms would fall under the blanket of a situation of interest. But even were the day to be perfectly clear he would still have preferred the two people he was supposed to be waiting for to show sooner than later so the captain could turn the clipper around and get them away from this place of never ending danger and back to waters he considered home.

Nearly an hour passed in agonizing slowness with the only noise being the muffled sound of the waters lapping against the rocky shore and the occasional sound of the men at the oars working to keep the longboat in a steady position. And then out of the gloom two silhouettes slowly began to take shape, one appearing to be supporting the other as they struggled towards the beach. Lieutenant Du quietly ordered the men to take the longboat all the way onto the beach and as he heard the bottom hit land he jumped off into the water and ran forward to meet these people he was supposed to be picking up.

Both were quite young, perhaps even younger than his twenty two years, the one supporting the other appeared to be a young blonde man as they finally got close enough for him to discern any details about the two. His companion was a young woman with glossy black hair surrounding her tanned face and he noted a small trail of blood running down from the corner of her mouth. They were both wearing identical black garb that as they neared was revealed to have undergone a great deal of wear and tear in a fairly short period of time.

About twenty paces or so from the young lieutenant the blonde man finally gave out and collapsed to the ground his companion trailing after as gravity took over. Lieutenant Du motioned for some men to come help him and together they dragged the two back to the longboat, as they pushed off to get back to the clipper Lieutenant Du took the time to give these two mysterious passengers a closer look. Rather one passenger it seemed as he noticed the girl was not breathing and she had the pallor of one recently deceased. A quick look revealed several wounds in her back that appeared to have been arrows or crossbow bolts and he could only wonder what these two were sent to find out that would put them in such danger.

A look at the young man revealed him to be still among the living but obviously more than a little the worse for wear. Opting to try to help the one he could, Lieutenant Du quickly took off his coat and spread it over the young man in an effort to keep him going till he got back to what care the ships doctor could offer.

The coat being draped over him caused the young man to groggily open his eyes and Lieutenant Du decided to try to find out some of what had sent them all to this forsaken place, "What happened, what did you find out?"

The man's lips moved slowly in a rasp and Lieutenant Du had to lean in close to hear they answer, "They're coming."

AN: Hm, two of these in one week now there's a conundrum. Well on to business then, I'm fairly sure you can pick out all sorts of historical and literary allusions in this, the list is so long even I've lost track of it. And this being a wholly original world expect an opening like this for many chapters to come as I fill in more and more details about this story. If you have questions that you absolutely must have answered now though don't hesitate to ask and I'll see what I can do. Now if you haven't already gone and read Bad Girls then do so once you've recovered from the awesomeness of this chapter, ciao.


	2. The Nightmare Begins

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own ye olde characters of Kim Possible

Chapter One: The Nightmare Begins

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XIX, subject Ronald Stoppable-

Whether the hand of the universe, a whim of fate, or an act of God it is almost universally agreed that some larger more powerful agency had influence over events for someone with the humble beginnings of Ron Stoppable to achieve in his life what he did. Orphaned before his third year Ron Stoppable was left a street urchin with precious little chance of survival and at best a short life never amounting to much for he had no access to education or opportunities to apprentice into a job.

This however was not to be his destiny as one day he witnessed Princess Kim drop her favorite toy while touring the city with her parents in their efforts to make sure she could connect with the common people of the Three Kingdoms. Being possessed of a kind heart from such a young age Ron picked up the toy and followed the royal entourage through the rest of its route searching for an opportunity to return the toy to the young girl he did not yet recognize as the princess. The entourage at last returned to the palace and only then did young Ron realize exactly who it was who had dropped the toy. Undaunted he marched up to the gates with the intent to return the princess' toy but a street urchin barely into childhood asking to see the princess of the Three Kingdoms was laughed away by the guards.

Many would have given up at that point but at this point it seems some higher power took interest in the life of a most unremarkable boy. As he walked away from the palace dejected at his failure he happened to look out and see the princess on her balcony despondent over the loss of her favorite toy. Renewed of hope Ron found an ivy covered portion of the wall and scaled it, from there he snuck through the grounds into the palace itself and up the many floors to Princess Kim's chambers, a feat unexplained and unrepeated to this very day.

Not one easily surprised Princess Kim was less concerned with a dirty unknown boy entering her chambers than getting her toy back and rather than scream for the guards she quickly befriended Ron. When at last the guards were alerted, by a maid who had come to fetch the princess for supper, Kim vehemently defended her new friend and rather than being thrown out onto the streets again or worse yet imprisoned Ron was taken before Kim's father. An able and intelligent ruler the king quickly realized Ron's innate talents and hearing of his circumstances in life took the young boy in thus was born the greatest friendship in the history of the world.

Please note the following information is classified, if you do not have proper clearance please alert archival staff immediately that this document has been improperly filed. Some few years after the information available in public archives it came time for Ron Stoppable to begin pursuing a career, having seen potential from his earlier feat the King decided to send him to the Yamanouchi school to be trained as a ninja for six months of each year the other six to be spent in Middleton pursuing a more classical education.

His first few weeks at Yamanouchi were very rough and there were some who began to speculate if it might not be better to withdraw him from the school, but at this point two things happened that drastically changed the situation. The first was that it was found that Ron Stoppable possessed Mystical Monkey Power, meaning that the methods of training he was being exposed to were not sufficient to develop his talents. The second was that he met a young girl named Yori who had recently been orphaned much as he had. These two struck up a friendship and that gave Ron the motivation he needed to excel at Yamanouchi for years to come.

**-Rockwall Kingdom, present day-**

Of course it would be one of _those_ days between Connie and Lonnie when she drew the short straw to clean up after their innumerable spats over things that only rarely made any sense to anyone but them. But they were princesses while she was a lowly maid who had the ability to read and write solely because she happened to have befriended their younger sister. No, Tara was not in any position to be able to give the elder princesses the head knocking they so desperately needed, all she could do was hope that one of them stormed out sooner than later and they didn't break anything else in the meantime.

That hope was quickly dashed as the sound of a vase shattering accompanied a burst of shouting that came through the heavy oak doors loud enough for Tara to know that the sisters were arguing about which one of them was older and therefore should be crown princess. She could still remember Bonnie telling her about how when her older sisters had been born they had forgotten to note which one had been born first and so her parents hadn't been able to decide on which would be the heir apparent. That was an issue that sas coming back to haunt the royal family of the Rockwall Kingdom, the king and queen were far from old but weren't so young anymore that deciding on an heir was something they could put off for another day.

It didn't help that neither of them had married yet, and it didn't help them in that regard that despite Connie's brains and Lonnie's looks the men who came to court them were quickly put off by their personalities and decided that the possibility of ruling over a kingdom was not worth a lifetime with either of the sisters. Tara hoped that the king and queen would take the more unusual course and name their youngest daughter, Princess Bonnie, to be their heir. Her hope was in large part because despite being born into very different stations in life she and Bonnie had somehow over the years become best friends. She also thought that her friend would simply make a better ruler than her older sisters, Bonnie was opinionated and not afraid to show it but if proven wrong she'd adjust her opinions accordingly. And that was just one of a number of things Tara could list off that she thought made Bonnie the better choice than her sisters.

But, she thought as another heavy crashing sound came from the room, that wasn't her choice to make, if it was she would be sitting in the throne room or wherever Bonnie's parents were right now instead of standing outside Connie and Lonnie's room waiting for them to finish up with their fight so she could go clean it up for them to do it all over again. Tara would have been happier if Bonnie had been there right then but unfortunately for the blonde her best friend was out helping with reconstruction of a village that had been damaged by a forest fire earlier that year. Tara thought that was the sort of thing Connie or Lonnie should be doing to build an argument for their claims to be heir but by their own words they were princesses and couldn't be bothered with the affairs of commoners.

Which, Tara thought with no small amount of amusement, meant everyone but them. The Rockwall Kingdom was small enough that the royal family could efficiently govern it with no nobility necessary unlike their southern ally. That also meant that most of the time it was a commoner marrying into the royal family that produced the next generation, Connie and Lonnie however were determined to have none of that. It might have gone over a bit better if any of the nobles from the Three Kingdoms who came to evaluate the prospects of courting one of the sisters could spend more than a handful of minutes with them before jumping back on their horse to flee home.

Not that Bonnie's luck with men was much better but it was far less a result of her personality driving men away. True Bonnie could get a bit acerbic at times but it was really a contest between the fact that she'd only become eligible to be married a few months ago and that as the third daughter she was well behind her older sisters in terms of being courted. It was almost enough to make her wish that something would happen that would force Connie and Lonnie to step up and with their inevitable failure Bonnie would be the choice for heir. Almost was as close as she got though because she could only think of one thing that would force that and she'd rather not have to live through a Second Invasion.

Finally with one last noise of destruction blessed silence descended over the area and Tara knew that even if their never ending fight hadn't been resolved it was at least finished for the time being. A few seconds later Connie came storming out of the room and right past her, skirts and hair bristling like an angry cat she ignored the blonde maid waiting to deal with the aftermath of the morning. Tara waited a few minutes more for Lonnie to either calm down or leave the room before she cautiously cracked the door open and poked her head in. A sigh escaped from her lips as she took in the scene, Lonnie had at least left the room but between the two of them Connie and Lonnie had completely trashed the place. Tables were broken, vases were shattered, curtains ripped and torn, and she didn't even want to think how they'd gotten the mattress off the bed and up into the rafters.

Besides thinking about it would just make this take even longer than it already was and Tara would be lucky to be done by the end of the afternoon as it was. Rolling up her sleeves she set to pulling aside things that could be cleaned and otherwise salvaged from those that she was going to have to get some of the men around the castle to come in and get rid of. Once that was done came the real grit of the work, cleaning and putting back everything that could be saved then going and finding or making lists of what would have to be replaced. And there was the little matter of getting the mattress down from the rafters, which took her the better part of half an hour to figure out and get done. In the end her guess of barely finishing by the end of the afternoon turned out to be about right as she looked to see the sun about halfway down the mountains as she finally put the last bit in place. Okay she still had to run her list of what needed replacing to the people who took care of buying new things but that was on her way to her next destination, food.

Preferring to not split up her work and risk doing things she'd already done over Tara had opted to skip lunch in favor of keeping up her pace of work. That was a decision she was coming to regret as she made her way down the flights of stairs from Connie and Lonnie's rooms to the guts of the castle. It could have been worse she supposed, if Bonnie was even half right the palace at Middleton was far larger than her own home and Tara would have had a far longer walk to the kitchens and dinner. Of course if she were in Middleton she didn't think she'd have to clean up after anyone quite like this, Bonnie and her counterpart Princess Kim didn't get along too well but even her best friend would admit that the royal children of the Three Kingdoms got along far better than her and her sisters.

And there was that other little thing that would be different if she lived in the Three Kingdoms but Tara preferred not to think about that as it always made her think about her mother and how the fever that had raged through the kingdom when she was barely five had taken her as one of its many victims. Shoving those thoughts of her head Tara made quick work of dropping off the list, fortunately no one was at the desk to make a big deal about it. And then she at last got to set off to what was going to be the high point of her day.

Unfortunately she never made it to the kitchens and dinner, it seemed like some higher power had made it its mission to keep Tara from getting relief from her hunger that evening, of course once she realized the reason she'd been interrupted on her way to dinner being hungry would be one of the last things on her mind. Midway on her way to the kitchens another maid, one younger and less well connected than Tara, interrupted the blonde with a message that needed to be taken to the King and Queen without delay. Hungry as she was Tara was tempted to pass it off or interpret 'without delay' as meaning after dinner but the look in the girls face made her take the rolled up message in her hand and slowly straighten it out.

As her eyes scrolled line by line down the message Tara felt the blood in her face trail right behind down into her feet and even before she'd finished reading all the details of the message she had hiked her skirts well beyond decency and had taken off at a sprint towards the throne room and hopefully someone who could tell her where the King and Queen were. The long run left her near breathless by the time she threw open the massive doors to the throne room and dashed past the surprised guards to spot much to her relief the two people she was looking for sitting on their large gilded thrones.

"Majesties," Tara rasped out as she slid to a halt and into an awkward curtsey, "urgent message. Drakanadian armies have breached the northern forts and are marching on the capital."

"What, say that again would you?" The King's confusion was understandable since Tara's explanation had been so breathless she had barely understood it herself.

"Second Invasion," Tara gasped out opting for an explanation she could manage while catching her breath.

"Is that the message you're bringing?" The Queen pointed to the piece of paper clutched in Tara's hand.

Tara's response was simply a nod and the Queen stepped down and took it from her, Tara watched as the blood drained from her face before she handed it silently to her husband.

Tara had never known Bonnie's father to be a man to be easily shaken but as he read the note Tara had brought he was luck that he was right in front of a chair as his knees lost the ability to support him. She watched as he rubbed his eyes in obvious thought and a morass of emotions from shock to anger to despair crossed his face. The young blonde maid was glad she wasn't on the throne at that moment as she would have had no clue what to do upon hearing that after five centuries Drakanada had unleashed its armies once again, Bonnie's father however seemed to come to his decision fairly quickly.

"Tara," he looked up from the paper, "run and get all the generals, tell them to send a messenger to Middleton with this message and then have them come directly here."

Tara curtseyed again and turned to carry out the order but before she had taken even a single step the door opened and one of the royal bodyguards, a young man named Eric if she remembered right, stepped into the room. Not wanting to run out if he had any new news Tara paused and looked back at the King who nodded quickly that she should stay to hear what was going to be said.

"My lieges," Eric said with a flourishing bow, "I have an important message about the invasion."

"Please," Bonnie's father said, "I was just about to alert the generals and more information can only be better."

"Of course," Eric spared a glance for Tara, "There are actually two parts to it. The first part is that I've found out who let the Drakanadians through the northern forts, it was your daughters Connie and Lonnie. The second part is that they are relieving you of your duties as King and Queen, I'm afraid your services are no longer required."

"Now is not the time for joking," the King said without a trace of humor, "if you have anything to say, say it."

"I wasn't joking," Eric's soft spoken statement was reinforced by the sound of steel rasping as he drew his sword, "Connie and Lonnie decided that rather than wait for you two to decide on one of them and then die they'd simply take matters into their own hands and help you with the dying part. They knew that if word ever got out about what they'd done that the people or your allies to the south would remove them from power so they made contact with us."

"Us…" the Queen said nervously, "you don't mean…"

"Yes," Eric's smile was chilling, "Drakanada, we've agreed to let them continue ruling here for us. Of course you won't live to see it, it's mildly problematic that your youngest daughter isn't here right now but don't worry she'll be joining you soon enough. But first she'll be… repaying the soldiers who go find her for their trouble."

"Do what you will to us," Bonnie's father didn't sound at all scared at the prospect of death, "you won't find Bonnie and the Three Kingdoms will stop you."

"We'll see about that," Eric started walking slowly towards the two, "last time we weren't ready for how much resistance you would put up, this time we've thought about that."

Tara wanted to look away but found herself unable to as Bonnie's father wrapped her mother in his arms before Eric coldly ran them both through. Once the deed was done he wiped his sword and resheathed it as though he hadn't just murdered two people.

"Don't worry," he turned to face the scared stiff blonde, "Connie and Lonnie said not to harm you if I came across you, at least not yet. They want their little sister here to see her best friend die."

Tara gulped at that, it seemed her nightmare was just beginning.

AN: First off I'd like to dedicate this chapter and its counterpart over in Bad Girls to my friends in uniform, you are each and every one of you better people than I. Since I'm espousing virtues I'd also like to say how highly I think of all the readers and writers in the KP section of this site, I dared venture out and it's a scary place out there. Writers demand reviews for more chapters and readers apparently acquiesce to this, I much prefer the meritocracy we have going in this section. Now that I've rambled, we all got to really meet the first of the major characters of this story, the rest will trickle in over the next few chapters and then the pace should pick up. And don't worry I'll stop killing people off for the next few chapters.


	3. Volunteers Wanted

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Forsooth! I do not own ye olde Kim Possible

Chapter Two: Volunteers Wanted

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XVI, subject Princess Kimberly Anne Possible-

The fairy tales told to our children are of magical worlds with princesses as damsels in distress and handsome princes coming to their rescue before they ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Apparently Princess Kim Possible did not absorb these fairy tales as from her earliest days she was anything but the typical image of a helpless princess waiting for her knight in shining armor. Those who knew her remarked that were she ever captured by something out of a fairy tale when the handsome prince arrived he would find her standing at the door, already having beaten the villain, tapping her foot wondering what took him so long..

It is fortunate then that with such a personality her parents raised her to cultivate that with the aim that when their time came Princess Kim should rule very much in fact and not simply serve to perpetuate the bloodline with whatever man she ended up married to. Having twin brothers ensured that Princess Kim could have spent her time learning to rule and left the more martial pursuits of royalty to her brothers. She however was too motivated to limit herself and along with her lessons in governance, finance, and etiquette she dove headlong into combat lessons ranging from hand to hand to all manner of weapons and strategies from one squad of men to entire armies.

Princess Kim's rigorous education did not prevent her from having friends, while some were put off by her intensely driven personality others, particularly Ron Stoppable, found it a refreshing change of pace from the hum drum normalcy of the nobility. Please note that a more in-depth summary of how these two came to be friends and the significant impact of that friendship can be found under Ron Stoppable's entry. This friendship in particular gave Princess Kim an empathy for the masses that few royals are fortunate enough to possess and among her many other talents would serve her well as she grew and later reigned.

As if seeking to test whether such a charmed life had left her soft the powers that be decided to place her in a position where she would be required to use all the skills at her disposal to prevent for the Three Kingdoms the fate that had befallen the Rockwall Kingdom. That however is not a topic for this entry, any further inquiries will have to be directed to archival staff for proper references.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

The southern Rockwall Kingdom was an absolutely gorgeous place, the high meadow was dotted with copses of trees and small clear brooks ran down from the mountains nourishing the abundant wildflowers that grew all around. And then there were the mountains themselves, great snow capped spires of rocks that in some cases rose right into the clouds so that one could not see the top. This high up the air seemed constantly crisp and a steady breeze meant that even before the autumn chill had set in one needed a traveling cloak. Or perhaps this high up the autumn chill had already set in but that was something that couldn't be controlled so it wasn't worth any great deal of thought.

For all that this was one of the most beautiful and pristine spots in the entire world though Josh Mankey would rather have been just about anywhere else at the moment. Okay not anywhere else since he could just as easily as not end up in Drakanada. But he would rather be most anywhere south of here, on land preferably. Well perhaps it was the circumstances that had landed him here more than anything else that fueled the wish to not be here. Were this a vacation or some more leisurely form of business Josh would have traded a great deal to have this be his destination or part of the journey but under the circumstances he would rather not be here.

Not that he had much choice in the matter, his orders to be here had come directly from the King himself and that meant that like it or not, and Josh certainly didn't like it, he would leap to obey. Now that invited the question of why he'd rather be many other places, certainly riding a horse towards a friendly capitol with a simple message through such beautiful terrain was far from a task most would cringe at. But Josh was carrying no simple message, the King had told him what the missive said in the event something happened to the package in one of his saddlebags. By fate or by circumstance Josh Mankey, a middling noble from the erstwhile Kingdom of Upperton found himself carrying a message that spelled the beginning of the Second Invasion.

He had by a cruel whim of whatever power was running the universe been in the throne room presenting his gallery of artworks to the royal family, the pinnacle of what any artist could dream to aspire to, when a naval officer had dashed in and relayed what Josh now knew to be the message he was carrying. The King then turned to Josh and asked if he had undergone his mandatory basic, and by virtue of his nobility his officers training. Not wanting to lie to his liege Josh replied that he had but he had been unable due to the pace at which events had folded thereafter to point out that he had graduated towards the bottom of his basic training class and at the bottom of his officer class.

None of this was the result of a lack of desire to defend his kingdom and his way of life, the Kingdom of Upperton had suffered the most during the First Invasion and tales of that time still lingered five hundred years later. Rather as one might have already guessed Josh's talents did not lie in the direction of those required of a soldier, he was instead gifted with an artist's touch. This he had excelled at, as one might also guess given that his works were well enough known and admired to warrant a private viewing by the royal family. However all men of the Three Kingdoms were required to undergo at least a certain level of military training and having done his time Josh had no option but to answer his King's call when it came.

And it had come at the worst possible time for Josh, had the war started and he was not where he had been he had few doubts he could have used his fame and connections to secure a post behind the lines. Once again not out of cowardice or a lack of desire to serve his kingdom, Josh was simply a man well aware of his limitations when it came to soldiering and he would rather not add his name to what would likely be lengthy casualty lists without a very good reason to do so. But all that mattered about as much as the pile of dung his horse had dropped a mile or so back as Josh found himself riding for the capital of the Rockwall Kingdom while somewhere north of him a Drakanadian army was marching south with the same goal in mind.

Josh and his squad of men continued on for the rest of the morning at a steady pace that ate up ground without tiring their mounts too rapidly. About midday they finally reached their goal and what they saw when they got there made Josh's stomach drop not just into his feet but on down into what must have been his horse's hooves. As they crested a rise to the south of the city and the capital came into view in all its splendor they saw the banner of the Rockwall Kingdom creep down the pole at the top of the highest tower of the castle. And then the sight that made his stomach drop, slowly as it rose up the span of the flagpole a new banner unfurled to reveal that somehow the Drakanadian army Josh had been dreading not so long ago had beaten him and his men not just to the northern forts but all the way to the capital of the Rockwall Kingdom.

Ironically enough for all that Josh had bemoaned his lack of ability to command men when the time came he was now in a position where the proper course of action was so obvious even he had no trouble grasping it. Even the most foolhardy commander who wanted nothing but to secure honor and bravery and all that other stuff would have realized that taking a city with five men was an exercise in complete idiocy and Josh was probably the opposite of those commanders. Before the Drakanadian banner was fully snapping in the wind Josh had his men wheeled around and heading back to Middleton at a pace that while it would likely leave their horses more than a little the worse for wear would get them back that much faster.

**-Middleton-**

Headache, nausea, aches just about everywhere else, that was putting it mildly in describing the sensations that first assaulted Ron Stoppable as he finally battled his way back to consciousness. And assaulted was very much the proper term for what Ron went through, he didn't think he could even blink for fear of how much it would hurt, rather he would if he could get his eyes to open in the first place. Even though he didn't have the ability to yet open his eyes Ron's ears were apparently working just fine and he could hear someone bustling around the room, not being sure where he was he couldn't be sure who was in the room with him.

Not surprisingly Ron's voice wasn't in any great shape as his attempt to ask where he was and who was in the room with him came out as a barely audible groan. Ron's groan was apparently audible enough for the mystery person to hear it.

"Ron?" Ron instantly recognized the voice as Kim's, "are you awake, can you hear me?"

It was all Ron could do to get out another groan like the one he'd produced earlier but it proved enough as it let Kim know that despite his being more than a little the worse for wear he was at least awake. Her immediate response was a very welcome one, she cracked open his mouth and poured a bowl of water down his throat, pausing to allow him to swallow. Although his injuries were far more severe this time, Kim having to nurse Ron back to health was nothing new for either of them. Odd as it may have been for the crown princess of the Three Kingdoms to be playing nurse it was something Kim had told him long ago she felt she should do for her best friend.

"Go back to sleep Ron," Kim rested a hand on his forehead, "you really got yourself beat up this time and even you'll need awhile longer to get better."

It might have been sheer exhaustion catching up with him or he might have been following Kim's advice but soon after she'd told him to get some more rest Ron went back into a deep and dreamless sleep.

The next time Ron woke up the moon had replaced the sun in the sky and he could only guess how many days had passed since his vague memories of briefly waking and Kim talking to him. Even more vague and far more chilling were the memories he had before waking in Middleton. He and Yori had set off on a mission that had come directly from Sensei and Kim's dad, signs of activity from Drakanada had concerned the two of them enough that they'd sent the two of them into enemy territory to find out if in fact there was anything to worry about.

The two of them had had an easy enough time sneaking into Drakanada, the sea voyage around the south of the continent had been uneventful and once they'd gotten on land it hadn't gotten any more eventful, at least at first. The land had been seemingly devoid of the plant and animal life that populated the Three Kingdoms, which meant that they had little cover, but there had been so few people moving through the countryside that they hadn't had to worry about hiding from that many people. Once they'd reached the Drakanadian capital of Shegoton there had been more people but two more people posing as a young couple hadn't drawn any notice.

Not that they'd had to do much posing as a couple, the only better friend Ron had in the entire world was Kim and then not by much, and the two of them had been raised so much like a brother and sister that when the day came for Ron to realize girls were in fact different and in a good way the only girl he knew well enough to draw his attraction in a major way had been his friend and partner at Yamanouchi. And amazingly enough when several years later he'd accidentally blurted out his affections it had turned out that Yori returned his feelings and somehow the two had muddled through a relationship for the last few months.

Once they had snuck into the fortress like castle at the heart of the city things had started to go downhill, for one their disguises would no longer do them much good, and the other larger problem had been that since they didn't know where the information they were looking for was located they had to look in all sorts of places which chanced over and over their running into someone who would sound the alarm.

Even then they'd done surprisingly well, following their training to simply act like they belonged no one ever questioned them walking down the corridors and through educated guesses they'd been able to narrow down their search until they'd been able to trick a mid-level bureaucrat into giving them the papers they'd needed. Getting out of the castle they'd had another close call when the Drakanadian emperor himself had come into the same room as they were in, following the cues of the bureaucrat they'd just fooled they managed to keep up the illusion despite being more than a little weirded out by the fact that the emperor of Drakanada had blue skin.

Not wasting any time they had started towards the coastline where they were supposed to be picked up with the information they'd gathered, all the more critical because they'd found out that the disturbing signs did indeed mean that Drakanada was planning a Second Invasion and that information desperately needed to get back to Middleton as quickly as possible. They'd moved quickly and indeed they thought they might make it out without any great incident when everything had gone wrong. Someone had apparently figured out that they weren't supposed to have been where they were or seen what they'd seen, or really any number of things but the point was that without much warning they'd been attacked and been pursued nearly to the coast.

The last thing he remembered clearly was Yori pushing him off a cliff at the coast before tumbling down herself, after that it was less clear but he was pretty sure that he'd seen she'd been hurt and then dragged them both to the coast where someone friendly had found them given that he was in Middleton and not a Drakanadian dungeon. The great question remaining was had anyone gotten their warning in time?

Ron drifted off to sleep again and woke up when the door creaked open, he tilted his head up to see Kim poking her head in, seeing that he was awake she stopped trying to be quiet and walked into the room with a look of sadness on her face, instantly Ron began to fear that something bad had happened but given the range of possible things that could go wrong with all he'd been through lately Ron decided to wait for Kim to break whatever news it was she was dreading telling him. Though since it was a look of sadness on her face and not one of grim determination Ron had a sinking feeling he knew what had happened.

"Well you're certainly doing better," Kim put a look of forced cheer on her face, "I swear for as much as I have to nurse you back to health if you didn't have that Mystical Monkey Power making you heal faster I'd never get anything else done."

"You know me," Ron's voice was gravelly from lack of use, "I've always got to be the center of attention. So what'd I miss while I was out?"

"Ron," Kim stammered as her false cheer evaporated, "how much do you remember about what happened to you and Yori when you were coming back?"

"We were attacked," Ron said slowly as he relived the experience, "a bunch of soldiers led by this creepy lady who was shooting green stuff from her hands, we got to a cliff and Yori just pushed me off, I had a rough time going down and I was barely conscious when she hit after me, I dragged the two of us towards the coast and then I woke up here."

"Do you remember anything about how Yori looked when she hit after you?" Kim asked softly, "Like if she was hurt or anything like that?"

"Kim," Ron exerted himself to prop himself up on one elbow, "what happened to Yori?"

"She's dead," Kim sounded on the verge of tears, "as near as we can figure from what the crew of the ship that rescued you two told us she was hit by several arrows after she pushed you off and she probably didn't even survive the fall."

Ron stared blankly at the wall in front of him for almost a whole minute before he finally pulled himself together enough to speak, "Did… did our warning get through?"

"Yeah," Kim smiled wanly, "that's a little better news but I still feel like I'm heaping on the bad news. As soon as dad heard what you and Yori had found out he sent an army group up into the Rockwall Kingdom to help them defend the northern forts. But somehow the Drakanadian army got through the forts without any heavy fighting, by the time the army stopped them they'd occupied almost two thirds of the Rockwall Kingdom, both sides are dug in now and no one's going anywhere in a hurry. And that's not all, we found out that part of why the invasion went so fast was that the Rockwaller's two older daughters betrayed them."

"Wow," Ron breathed out, "I really screwed up this time, I let you and Yori and pretty much everyone in the whole world down."

"Don't you even get started on that," Kim's voice rapidly became heated, "if you hadn't gotten that warning back to us we'd probably be fighting a Drakanadian army in front of Lowerton instead of in the Rockwall Kingdom, which by the way would be totally occupied. And it wasn't all bad news, there was a landing fleet heading towards Upperton, not one of those ships ever even saw the city, much less had a chance to get any troops off onto land. And there might still be some hope for the Rockwall Kingdom, Connie and Lonnie might be a couple of traitors but the youngest daughter, Bonnie, wasn't in the city when the invasion came and as far as we know she's still alive. If we can find her and somehow get her back here it'd go a long way towards turning this whole thing around, I don't think anyone here is too happy about the idea of it taking another twenty five years to beat Drakanada."

"I'll go," Ron tried to drag himself up to his feet, "more than enough people are already dead because I screwed up and if I can do anything about it I'm not about to let this Princess Bonnie get added to that list."

"Oh no you don't," Kim kept Ron sitting with a hand on his shoulder, "you can barely stand right now, you're not in any shape to go off rescuing anyone. And even if you were all rested and healed up all we know is that Bonnie _might_ be alive, we don't know anything about where she is and even though it's small compared to the Three Kingdoms the Rockwall Kingdom is still a pretty big place. Once you're better and someone around here knows where to start looking for the princess then you can go talk to dad and Sensei about going off to rescue her but not till then."

Ron huffed as he fell back into his pillows, Kim was dead set in her thinking and in any case it turned out that she was right that he wasn't in any shape to go anywhere. But at least now he had some idea of how he could go about making up for his failing Yori.

AN: I have news, if it's good or bad is up to you. Every summer my church goes on a summer mission trip, and this years is from June 6th to June 18th. As you probably just guessed I'm going on it and obviously won't have a computer to write or update. What I will have is a college rule notebook and a pen so if I type fast when I get back we'll see about June 22nd. Anywho, now you've met even more of the main characters, happy day. Stick with me over my long absence and when I get back I'll make it up with another main character, ciao for awhile all.


	4. Sanctuary

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I asked Santa if I could have KP for Christmas, check back then.

Chapter Three: Sanctuary

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XVIII, subject Princess Bonnie Rockwaller-

The Rockwall Kingdom has since long before the First Invasion had no strictures against daughters of the royal family succeeding the throne if they prove the most capable. Given this it should have been easy for Bonnie to be picked the crown princess, she was just as intelligent as her older sisters and far more concerned about the welfare of her subjects and the day to day running of the kingdom. However as the youngest of three sisters her opportunities to demonstrate her abilities to rule were few and far between. And on the few occasions she did show some hint of her talents her older sisters were quick to do everything in their power to ensure their parents did not become aware of this and moreover to ensure that Bonnie didn't know what she had done was good. The result of this occurring for many years was that as the youngest daughter few thought that Bonnie might grow up to one day become queen.

While Bonnie's older sisters were successful in keeping their parents ignorant of their youngest daughter's capabilities they were unsuccessful in keeping Bonnie unaware of this. In her youth Princess Bonnie made an unusual friendship, that of an equally young scullery maid and it was this that provided Bonnie with the knowledge that her sister's constant affirmations of her inferiority in all aspects of life might in fact be lies. This reality defined in large part Bonnie's childhood, constant belittling by her sisters, a lack of attention by her parents, and only the single scullery maid Tara for any sort of friendship and positive reinforcement.

Despite this, by all accounts Princess Bonnie had matured into a beautiful and very spirited young woman by the time of the second invasion. And that is where the road of her life intersects with history, for events in her life were directly responsible for the second invasion. In particular was the succession crisis occurring at the time, in all previous instances the word 'crisis' had proven to be an exercise in hyperbole but this time was not to be the case. Most 'crises' were when a younger child proved more able to succeed the throne than their elder, in these cases the most common outcome was that one of the children in question would simply abdicate their right to the throne. Failing that the king and queen would call together their ministers and have them select an heir with the caveat that two thirds of the ministers had to select that person for the decision to be official.

In the case at hand neither of Bonnie's elder sisters, Connie and Lonnie, were willing to give up their claim to the throne. And when the king and queen called together their ministers to select a crown princess none emerged with even a majority, much less two thirds. The reason for this being that over the years Bonnie had become quite popular among the servants in the castle and this had spread to the commoners of the kingdom. The ministers as part of their efforts to select a crown princess sought input from a number of commoners and the popularity that Princess Bonnie unknowingly enjoyed gained her a number of ministers who supported her nomination as crown princess. Through a combination of bribery, thuggery, and rumored more than occasional seduction, Connie and Lonnie managed to sway enough ministers to keep their younger sister from victory in a contest she did not even know she was part of.

In desperation the ministers begged the king and queen to pick from among their daughters, eyes opened at last to the potential greatness of their youngest daughter it soon became apparent to Connie and Lonnie that no outcomes left them happy as at least one and increasingly likely both of them would be passed over. Both of the elder Rockwaller sisters had through the years proven to be petty, vengeful, spiteful, intensely jealous, mean spirited, and utterly without concern for anything beyond their own immediate gratification. None however thought them capable of what came next, rather than admit that their younger sister was not only a person of worth and indeed more qualified than either of them to ascend to the monarchy they began to scheme a plan to eliminate Princess Bonnie and their parents who would consider passing them over for her.

While it might sound simplistic to call the results of this the Second Invasion the impact of Connie and Lonnie Rockwaller's treachery cannot be overstated. The information and subterfuge up to and including assassination provided invaluable assistance to Drakanada without which it might have been another five centuries before they felt capable of taking on the Allied Kingdoms again. Whether luck hitherto unheard of or an act of God it was the good fortune of all free peoples that when the traitorous princesses schemes came to fruition Princess Bonnie was out in the countryside and therefore out of their immediate reach. The death of her parents and the betrayal of her sisters left Bonnie nominally Queen Bonnie of the Rockwall Kingdom, but possibly more importantly it all but sealed her role in some of the oldest and most important prophecies.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

Felix wasn't supposed to sit on his village council, not yet at least, not for a great many more years. That had been before his father had been killed in a hunting accident though, now he found himself by far the youngest man in a room full of old men and women who had egos as large as their ages. For once though they all seemed to agree on the major issue at hand, that something had to be done about the kingdom being occupied by Drakanada, what they were disagreeing about rather vigorously was how exactly they should go about resisting the occupation. About half of the men and women there wanted to mount a very active and vigorous resistance, ambushing patrols, laying booby traps, and generally trying to wage an out and out guerilla war. The other half warned that they couldn't possibly do anything significant against Drakanada and that their best hope would be to pass along any information they could on troop movements and the like to Allied armies.

"It's simply impossible," the elderly town doctor, Dr. Cook said, "we don't have the ability to inflict enough harm on the Drakanadian army on our own to do any good and the information we can pass on to the Allies might let them do something about this invasion."

"That's where you're wrong," the master blacksmith Mr. Harris snapped back, "I'm not saying we go out and kill any Drakanadian soldier we come across and hope we depopulate them, the First Invasion proved that even entire armies can't do that. What we can do is constantly disrupt their supply lines, an army marches and lives on its stomach, we can keep enough supplies from getting to the front to starve many soldiers and weaken even more. That's going to let the armies break through and liberate our kingdom."

"Of course it won't," Dr. Cook slammed a fist on the table, "if we keep food from getting to their armies from Drakanada they'll start taking it from here. Then the people of the Rockwall Kingdom will start starving while the Drakanadian army is just as strong as ever. Everyone knows that the Rockwall Kingdom can't stop Drakanada on its own, even with the massive forts across the passes, they'll just overwhelm them with sheer numbers. We need the alliance to keep our freedom and we have to do everything we can to help it succeed, in this case that means giving them as much information as we can so they can drive the Drakanadian army out."

"You're both wrong," a scratchy voice cut in as the aged and nearly senile miller Mr. Kramer spoke up, "back in the good old days we were ready for something like this we decided we'd…"

Everyone tuned the decrepit old man out as he prattled on about how much better the 'good old days' were compared to modern times. As the oldest person in the village he was entitled to a spot on the council but the next good idea he had would be the first and given that he had moved away from the occupying army and was talking about how much harder people had worked back in his youth no one suspected that today would be the day he put forth his first good idea.

"What if we could get in contact with villages near us," the innkeeper Mr. Allenford joined the discussion, "I agree that we ourselves can't do enough harm to the Drakanadian army to tip the balance but if five or ten villages all waged a campaign of ambushes and supply disruption we could surely make an impact. And I don't think I'd be mistaken to say that most if not all of the nearby villages are having a meeting just like this."

Debate raged back and forth for almost an hour with neither side making much headway, Felix just sat there silently listening and pondering the outcomes of each side. Finally the debate ended and it came time for the village council to vote. Unsurprisingly the vote was evenly split, all those who had argued for a vigorous response voted for a guerilla war and those who had argued caution had voted for an information gathering campaign. Felix was the last one to vote and so once again the course of action the village fell on his shoulders, only this time the stakes were a little higher than deciding if the sheep in question belonged to one farmer or another.

"I'm going to go with information gathering," Felix said at last, "if the Drakanadians start to suspect we're acting against them they'll come and raze the village without a second thought. And I'm willing to bet that the Allies have people working behind lines and if we can tip them off where supply trains are then they can take care of those without unnecessarily endangering our people."

Of course the people he'd voted against weren't exactly happy but they couldn't argue with Felix's reasoning and in any case the vote was final and griping about it would only keep them vexed longer. The council went through a few more procedural matters but everyone knew the important business of the day had been accomplished. They were just about to adjourn and return to their homes when one of the young boys in the village knocked on the door and poked his head in to say there was someone in an army uniform who wanted to see them. Figuring what 'army uniform' meant the members of the council scowled but also knowing that they couldn't afford to antagonize their occupiers they told the boy to bring him in.

To their surprise instead of an arrogant Drakanadian officer a young blonde man in the uniform of the Rockwall Kingdom stepped into the room. Immediately everyone in the room leaned forward and their faces went from mildly surly to looks of intense expectation.

"Thanks for seeing me," the man said, "I'm Lieutenant Brick Flagg and unless we run into someone higher ranking I'm the captain of Princess Bonnie's guard for the time being. We've been trying to keep ahead of her sisters and their Drakanadian lackeys for a few weeks now. Her highness sent me into here to ask if you'd be willing to hide her in your village for awhile."

Immediately a debate began to erupt among the council members, those who had wanted a guerilla war argued to allow the princess in as it was their duty to provide her shelter. Those who had argued against a guerilla war argued that hiding the most sought after person in the entire world would only serve to bring immeasurable danger on the village and its inhabitants. It quickly became apparent that when it came to a vote the numbers would deadlock just as they had before and so all the heads turned to Felix to serve as their tie-breaker. Unlike before where he had spent several minutes thinking over his vote Felix's response was instant.

"Bring the princess into the village," he said, "we'll see what we can do about finding a place for her to hide and we'll see what we can do for you and your men as well. Once that's taken care of we'll try to get a message to the Three Kingdoms saying where she is so they can rescue her."

**-Southern Rockwall Kingdom-**

Captain Josh Mankey heaved a sigh as he dismounted his horse and began the seemingly endless walk back to his tent. In reality the walk was less than a hundred yards but in full plate armor it seemed more like a hundred miles. It could have been worse he thought, during the first invasion officers wore gaudy armor and the higher the rank the more gaudy the armor. As far as Josh was concerned he still should have been only a lieutenant, but in gratitude for returning with the information of Drakanadian armies invading he had been 'rewarded' with a promotion to captain and a field assignment. Of course the people who had promoted him had probably viewed it as a reward along with his field assignment where he could gain 'honor' and 'glory.'

Josh had of course protested the promotion saying that he really wasn't that talented a soldier and the promotion should go to someone more deserving and skilled. His pleas however had fallen on deaf ears and if anything had made his situation worse. Not only had the general there praised him for his humility and told him how that would endear him to the men under his command but perhaps even worse it had caught the eye of the king. Princess Kimberly had been in the room as well and cosmopolitan that he was Josh was well aware that she had recently attained age where she was eligible for marriage. The king had remarked upon his so called humility as a virtue he would like to see in the man who would some day wed his little girl. It wasn't that Josh had anything against Kim, she was quite pretty and he was sure she was intelligent as well, it was just that he wasn't ready to be thinking about marriage at that point in his life and he didn't want to wake up one day to find himself trapped in an arranged marriage to someone he had only seen once before the wedding day.

That had been a month ago and as far as Josh was concerned he was lucky to still be alive, here in the southern Rockwall Kingdom the two opposing armies had dug in with massive trench lines and field fortifications. Massed longbowmen cut down attacks three hundred yards out and once attackers got closer they had to start fearing crossbows and just before enemy trenches were rows of sharpened pikes. An entire month and neither side had advanced more than a few hundred yards at any one time, almost the exact opposite of the First Invasion which had seen armies covering twenty or more miles a day. Probably his greatest strength, if one could call it that, was that he knew how inept at combat he really was and he was careful to avoid pitched battle, that an arrow or bolt hadn't come by with his name on it was just sheer luck.

Josh managed to undo all the heavy armor without having to call for help from anyone and with great relief he let it clunk to the ground before he peeled off the mail shirt underneath and then the heavy padded coat that kept the armor from chafing. After that he oiled and polished the armor to keep it from rusting before he put it up on the stand in his tent that was there for just such purpose. Grabbing a fresh tunic and trousers he slipped out of his tent and made his way to the officer's baths which were thankfully empty. After bathing Josh put on his fresh clothes and started walking back to his tent to work on his after-action report.

Halfway there he was interrupted by a message runner who with luck might have been in his teens, "excuse me sir but there's a messenger in the command tent who has a message he says is very valuable to the war effort but he can only give it to our commanding officer."

"Any clue what this message is?" Josh stopped walking and looked down at the boy.

"No sir," the youth's voice cracked, "only that he's a member of the resistance and this message could put us a long step towards winning the war."

"Alright," Josh sighed as they started walking towards the command tent, "are you sure this guy is actually from the resistance and not a Drakanadian spy or assassin?"

"Yes sir," the boy nodded, "the intelligence people checked him out and they say he's who he says he is."

"Okay then," Josh stopped at the flap to the command tent, "wait out here I might need you to run some messages after I'm done talking to this guy."

Josh pushed aside the tent flap and walked into the command tent, amidst the tables strewn with maps and messages sat a man in a chair, he was a smallish man more suited in Josh's opinion to a chess table than an underground resistance.

"Hello," Josh walked over and stuck out his hand to the man, "I'm Captain Josh Mankey of the Three Kingdoms, I'm the commander here and I was told you have a message for me."

"Kevin Guberman," the resistance member took Josh's hand, "the message will hopefully reach your king but I'm hoping you'll be the one to deliver it. Both you and the Drakanadian army are looking for Princess Bonnie, we know where she is and we'd like to ask that your kingdom rescues her before her sisters catch up to her."

"You have her exact location?" Josh asked wide eyed, "or just a general guess."

"Not her exact location," Guberman slid a piece of paper across the table, "that varies from day to day but this is the village she's being hidden in, get someone there and our people will take him to her."

"I cannot thank you enough," Josh stood up, "I would stay longer but I'm sure you want this to get to Middleton as fast as possible and there's still daylight today. I'll ask my second in command to take care of getting you anything you need before you cross enemy lines again."

Josh walked swiftly out of the tent and motioned for the message runner to follow him, "go fetch Lieutenant Ned, tell him to meet me at my tent as soon as possible, convenient or not."

From there he kept up the pace back to his tent where he quickly memorized the village name and location before putting the message into a leather pouch and stuffing it along with his travel essentials into his saddlebags.

He was just about finished packing when his tent opened and in walked his second in command, "You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes," Josh closed his saddlebags and hoisted them over his shoulder, "there's a man in the command tent, he's a member of the resistance who just brought us a very important message see to it that he gets whatever he needs before he leaves. You'll be in command for awhile after that too, this message is important enough that I want to see it to Middleton personally, getting a message to a higher up is political warfare and unlike this I'm more than skilled in that arena."

Josh walked out to the post where the horses were tethered together and quickly brushed his horse before putting his saddle on and fixing the saddlebags to it. After that he turned his horse south towards Middleton and set off at a fast trot with ironically the most important message to the Kingdom war effort since the last one he had delivered.

AN: Okay now you've seen or heard of all the main characters of this story, you won't actually see Bonnie until she's rescued but you'll be hearing about her more. This chapter pretty much wraps up the intro part of the story even though the chapters will still start with encyclopedia entries. From here expect the plot to pick up a bit as all the characters get moving on their part in the plot. Now I'm going to go back to bed and try sleeping off this cold.


	5. Reality and Redemption

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: No own Kim Possible!

Chapter Four: Reality and Redemption

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XXV, subject Yori-

Many scholars, publications, and universities tend to overlook Yori and her contributions as they occurred before the Second Invasion and she was deceased before the Second Invasion, it should be noted that the last classification is somewhat of a misnomer as the scholarly consensus is that Yori was the first casualty of that conflict. The royal archives does not hold to the view that her accomplishments should be overlooked as they did trickle into the events of the Second Invasion and her influence on other important figures during that time makes her important enough in our view that to ignore her would be to record an incomplete history of one of the most important periods of history. Please also note that due to her death before the Second Invasion this entry is notably shorter than its counterparts as there is significantly less material to cover.

Like many students of the Yamanouchi academy Yori began her training there at a young age, younger than most in fact because her parents were ninjas there. She also knew better than most how dangerous the life of a ninja could be, we speak here not of her own death but of her being orphaned when her parents were both killed on a mission. This tragedy occurred just before the arrival of one of the most important figures in her life, Ron Stoppable. Being two people of like spirits they were quick to bond as friends, a friendship that in later years would briefly turn into more before Yori's own death. Many scholars believe this to be one of the great 'what ifs' of history as Yori's death proved to be just as important as anything she did while alive.

We will not speculate on any of those questions beyond to state that the course of history would have likely been very different had Yori survived. Yori's death left a large hole in Ron Stoppable's life at the same time the murder of her family left a similar hole in Princess Bonnie's life, the coincidence of his rescuing her at that exact moment cannot be overstated. Nor can the confidence Yori had in her partner be overestimated for the effects it had on Ron's abilities during the Second invasion.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

It was just one of _those_ days as far as Tara was concerned, of course pretty much every day now was one of _those_ days. Ever since Connie and Lonnie had betrayed them all and helped the Drakanadian army to invade everyone more or less went about their lives under a pall of despair. Tara though had it worse than just about anyone else in the entire kingdom, since they weren't going to kill her just yet Bonnie's older sisters had decided to settle for making her life a living hell. And years of practice with their younger sister combined with nearly unlimited authority meant they were very, very good at doing just that. The one small consolation in Tara's life was being able to watch Connie and Lonnie seethe as days and weeks and now more than a month passed without their finding Bonnie.

Aside from that though her life really was a living hell, she barely slept and ate enough to avoid collapsing of starvation or exhaustion and when she wasn't sleeping she was working. All sorts of menial and demeaning tasks that the princesses thought up for the sole purpose of tormenting her. And Tara had never actually been present for one of the many episodes where Bonnie's older sisters tried to destroy her spirit, they apparently thought that her being there might actually be a positive influence for their sister and they were having none of that. Now though she got daily doses of Connie and Lonnie telling her how stupid and ugly she was, and how it was only because Bonnie had stepped in that she had advanced as far as she even had and that they were simply doing their jobs by putting her back in her proper place in the scheme of things, namely a slave.

Yes it turned out that Drakanada practiced what technically amounted to slavery, it was simply that next to no one was rich enough to practice it and it had fallen out of practice as uneconomical in the kingdom long before the First Invasion. But no one had ever bothered making it outright illegal and Connie and Lonnie had decided to take advantage of that just to make her suffer and to by proxy torment their little sister. The other servants around the castle helped out when they could but those chances were few and far between as either Connie or Lonnie was almost always watching her and taunting her constantly pointing out non-existent mistakes and making her start over on a job just as she was about to finish it.

Busy as she was Tara still managed to keep up to date about what as going on in the world outside the castle walls, not surprisingly almost all the news these days was about the war. Of course if you believed what the occupiers told the town criers to say they had already conquered the Three Kingdoms five or six times over, she suspected it wasn't so bad to the south but it was quickly becoming obvious that all the governments in this war were going to greatly exaggerate their achievements. The other big news was Bonnie, or rather the lack of Bonnie, it seemed everyone in the world wanted to know where she was but as far as Tara knew no one knew where her best friend was and that was fine by her.

For now though she just had to get through the day, she'd started before sunup by brushing and grooming Connie and Lonnie's horses three times before the two were even up. Then she'd gone to the kitchens where she'd cooked a breakfast that was in the princesses words 'barely adequate for human consumption.' By then the sun was up and Tara was busied cleaning the royal apartments, twice because Connie decided she'd missed all sorts of spots in her first attempt. After that Lonnie told her that the royal closets were horribly unorganized and that it was Tara's job to fix that, first she organized by color but that wasn't right, then by style but again not to satisfaction, third time was by amount of use and was just as bad as the first two, the fourth time she put it back the way it had been at the start and Lonnie consented to let that go.

Finally Tara was able to get some lunch, normally a slice of bread and some stale water but Connie and Lonnie had gone to some meeting, shocking in and of itself that those two would actually work, and without them present to watch the kitchen staff had made sure Tara ate quite well that day. And that got Tara to where she was at the moment, lugging a heavy plate of food in one hand and a pitcher of wine in the other for the princesses in their meeting. Fortunately for the blonde they were actually too distracted to think of something for her to do and she slipped off before they could stop her and remember to order her to do some menial task.

Tara quickly walked back to the royal apartments and let herself in, making her way over to where Connie and Lonnie had their desks Tara let a smile onto her face at how forgetful and even stupid the princesses were to leave all sorts of classified information on their desks. Information that if Tara happened to see it, write it down, and then leave it for someone in the resistance to pick up, well that was just too bad for Connie and Lonnie and their Drakanadian allies. She had to work fast because there was no telling when one of them might come back and if she was discovered it would of course mean instant death, worse than that though it would mean the information she'd been passing along would be cut off.

Finished copying the documents Tara peeked out the door and then slipped out into the hall, she had to be careful to hide the papers she had on her until dark when she could leave them at the drop off point. Tara was lucky enough not to run into anyone who wanted to talk to her on her way back to the hovel that had become her quarters since Connie and Lonnie took over, little better than a bed in a room barely big enough for it Tara could still hide the information she'd copied in here until sundown.

After that Tara found herself with something she hadn't had in over a month, free time. Part of her wanted to stay in her room and try to catch up on any sleep she could possibly get but she understood that it would be a futile gesture that would only drive Connie and Lonnie to greater heights in their torment of her. So she decided to wander about the castle for a bit and see if she could catch up on the lives of all the people she knew but had been prevented from seeing since her ordeal started.

Regardless of ownership the castle was always a busy place so it didn't take very long for Tara to run into someone she knew.

"Hi Jessica," Tara said to her fellow blonde maid.

"Tara?" the blonde gawked at her in surprise, "is that really you?"

"Yeah," Tara replied, "I finally got away from our charming and loving princesses long enough to do something I want to do, even if it is just catching up with friends."

"It's so good to see you," her friend smiled, "those two work you harder than any three maids I've ever seen, can't you just poison their food or something so you can get a break?"

"Don't think I haven't thought of it," Tara laughed softly, "but as much as I'd love to I think I should keep them alive until Bonnie can get her hands on them."

Tara felt somewhat bad about not telling Jessica about Connie and Lonnie's forgetfulness with information but what Jessica didn't know she couldn't be made to tell by anyone who got curious.

"I guess you have a point," Jessica huffed, "so any idea how long you'll be able to stay free for?"

"No clue," Tara sighed, "they could come down the hall right now screaming for me or I could be free of them for hours."

Unfortunately Tara's first prediction proved the prophetic one as the nasal voices of Connie and Lonnie echoed down the hall demanding to know where she was.

"There you are," Connie scowled as they walked up to her, "what do you think you're doing?"

"Are you talking to someone," Lonnie glared at her, "like you're a real person?"

"We'll make sure to fix that," Connie went on before Tara could speak, "now follow us, whatever made you think you had some sort of break from work is done with and we'll make sure to find more work for you so you don't go getting any more ideas like this."

"You'd better not be getting any more ideas like that," Lonnie sneered at her as the three walked down the halls, "the Emperor of Drakanada himself is arriving tomorrow and so help us if you make us look bad even once we won't be waiting for our dear little sister to join us before we kill you."

**-Three Kingdoms-**

Kim always found war council meetings boring, not just war council meetings pretty much any council meetings were boring to the red headed princess. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate how important they were Kim was just not the kind of person who liked to sit down and meticulously plan out something that would never make it past step two on the many hundred step plan. She'd rather just get out there and do it from the top of her head and if she wasn't quite sure where she was going with any given action, well neither was her opponent.

Of course looking at the large map on which the army movements were plotted Kim didn't think anyone, least of all the generals wildly pointing at the map, could make proper sense of it. Not that that stopped them from making grandiose suggestions to her and her dad about how to win the war in one fell swoop. Strategies that hadn't worked so far and would only succeed in getting lots more people killed.

"I know you did the numbers General Burman," Kim said patiently to one of the generals urging his plan of attack, "but the Drakanadians did almost the exact same thing a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a disaster for them, I'd rather not see the same thing happen to us."

"They won't be expecting it though your highness," General Burn Burman gesticulated wildly at the map, "we can use to our advantage the fact that they won't expect us to try something that didn't work for them and before they know what's happening we'll have their entire army encircled and be driving north as fast as you could ever want."

"We weren't expecting it either," Kim sighed, "and we still stopped their attack before it got anything close to momentum. Face it general, it's a plan that looks good on paper but as soon as it hits the battlefield it's a plan that's impossible."

General Burman grumbled some more but eventually walked back to the cluster of generals standing around the big map talking among themselves in an attempt to sound important. Kim walked over to her dad who had just finished with a few other generals who had plans to throw soldiers into the jaws of the Drakanadian defenses.

"Hey Kimmie Cub," her dad patted her on the shoulder, "enjoying yourself?"

"How did I ever talk you into letting me come to these things," Kim crossed her arms and huffed, "all I do is tell these generals that their crazy plans won't work and then we sit down and play referees until they come up with something that actually looks halfway decent."

"That sounds about right," her dad chuckled, "just remember Kimmie that all these generals are learning how to do this as they go along so try not to be too hard on them until they've actually figured out what they're supposed to do."

"Fine," Kim huffed, "I'll do my best but can you really blame me for going off on a general who says an entire army should scale cliffs nearly a mile high and then march through the Rockwall Mountains to cut off the Drakanadian army."

Kim's dad just laughed as they walked over to the table where all the meetings took place, all the generals snapped to attention before being waved to their ease and back into their seats.

The meeting got underway and Kim held in a scream that she was again playing a glorified referee. She supposed it should have been something of a relief that they were planning a counter attack rather than still being on the defensive. But in truth she was still more than a little distracted by Ron, her best friend was completely back up to speed but his health wasn't what had her concerned. He still wasn't nearly over Yori and Kim was worried that he was going to do something stupid in an attempt to somehow get revenge for her or some other crazy male thing like that.

Fortunately the assembled brass seemed to be somewhat more reasonable than usual this particular meeting, not that they were anywhere approaching civil or intelligible. She and her dad were still able to wrangle all of them into a workable plan faster than most times. More than that it was a plan that might actually work in its own way, no one was seriously arguing for a breakthrough this time, just to gain some ground and hopefully make the Drakanadians pull back to avoid a breakthrough. The plan was to lure a large portion of Drakanadian soldiers into an attack where they could be quickly cut off and surrounded, then with even a little luck fresh troops could rush in to seize a crucial stretch of trenches. Then they turned to a new topic, what they were supposed to do with the intelligence they'd got about the location of Princess Bonnie.

"It's obvious we have to rescue her," Admiral Dash Demond stood up to speak, "I have several people I think would be perfectly qualified to undertake the job."

"Navy people," General Burman scoffed, "how are they supposed to do anything on land? I've thought this through and I have a squad assembled that is just what this job calls for, one that is trained in land operations."

"I don't even want this to get started," Kim's dad held up a hand for silence, "I've already picked my man to go rescue the princess and that's that."

"But sir," the two officers began to protest.

"I said that's that," her dad cut them off, "I've made up my mind and it's not going to change."

That pretty much put an end to the debate and after a few more minor details the generals and admirals were released to see to the actual implementation of the plan that had been agreed upon.

"Dad," Kim said as the two of them stood up to leave the room, "does Ron really have to be the one to go after Bonnie, I mean he's barely had any time to get over Yori and it can't be good for him to be thrown back into the whole ninja lifestyle this soon."

"Sit down Kim," her dad sighed as he planted himself back down in his own chair, "I talked this over with Ronald before I decided to send him and I know he's not over Yori. But I'm also convinced this is exactly what he needs to do in order to get back to where he needs to be."

"How though," Kim asked, "he's beating himself up over not being able to protect her and he needs to realize it wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could do before he can go out and do anything else. A month just isn't long enough to do that, even if you don't want to use the army or navy guys I'm sure you can get someone else from Yamanouchi to do this and spare Ron."

"I know what you're thinking Kimmie," her dad leaned forward, "but Ron does realize that what happened to Yori wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could do. It's just that guilt isn't a rational thing, Ron still feels like he failed her somehow because he put her in a position where she had to do what she did. And the only cure for that is to get him in a position where he has to rescue and protect someone and he can succeed. Ron's going to give this mission his all because he'll see it as his chance to redeem himself for what happened to Yori."

"I hate it when you do that," Kim sighed.

"Do what?" Her dad asked.

"Make sense like that," Kim said, "when does Ron leave?"

"Tomorrow," her dad answered, "he's taking care of a few last minute things."

"Okay," Kim stood up, "I'm going to go hang with my best friend one last time before he heads out again."

AN: First off, to all my Canadian readers happy Canada day on the first, God Save the Queen I think is the proper salute. Second, to all my fellow Americans God bless America on the fourth may we have two hundred thirty one more years of freedom. If you hate Connie and Lonnie after this chapter you're not alone and you're getting what I want you to get from this whole story. Second I don't think it's any great surprise that Ron's going to be the one to rescue Bonnie but there's plenty more in store for him and everyone else you can only find out by not forming that pitchfork and torch mob and letting me write.


	6. Waiting

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Insert witty way to say I don't own Kim Possible - here -

Chapter Five: Waiting

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XVIII, subject Felix Renton-

"History often chooses the most unlikely people for greatness," this anonymous quote is often said regarding Ron Stoppable but truly it applies to many of the people we consider 'great.' Perhaps though in the case of the Second Invasion it applies best to Felix Renton despite the man it has come to be associated with. Born with a tinkerer for a mother and the mayor of a small village in the Rockwall Kingdom for a father Felix did not appear poised for greatness nor did he appear on the brink of oblivion as Ron Stoppable did in his early years. Fortune however engineered somewhat of a reverse for Felix, in the space of a year he was twice struck by tragedy. A seasonal fever did more than inconvenience Felix, it left him paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Later that same year his father was out hunting for elk when the rock ledge he was perched on gave way and buried him in the rubble. In the space of less than a year Felix had gone from destined to live as comfortable a life as a peasant could hope for to a life mired in mediocrity.

Felix's father as mayor had held a seat on the village council before his death and as a matter of courtesy his fellows allowed Felix to hold that seat until a permanent replacement could be selected. However at not even ten years old Felix made obvious his intelligence and maturity to such a degree that he was selected as that permanent replacement. Not old enough or experienced enough yet to be elected mayor there was from that time forth there pervaded a sense of inevitability that some day Felix would be mayor. Also in a village council often voting in a tie between two courses of action it fell more and more to Felix to be the tie-breaker and with that came considerable power for one so young. His mother however made sure that as he entered his teenage years he continued to be raised with a sense of the responsibility accompanying his power. This was successful in keeping the power from going to his head and as the Drakanadian hordes spilled south once more he had emerged a respectable young man in his village.

Like many if not most civilians of the Rockwall Kingdom Felix was involved in the resistance against the occupying Drakanadian army. Indeed most villages participated as a whole in subtle ways of resisting the occupation, Felix and his village were however special. Being on the run from her sisters Princess Bonnie ended up seeking shelter in Felix's village making it very important as the location of the then most sought after person in the entire world. This would of course not come to light for some time but when it did it elevated the status of everyone in that village in the eyes of their fellow resistance members. If there could be said to have been a single leader of such a diffuse organization as the resistance was it would have to after that point be considered Felix Renton, a fact that would prove very important in the latter stages of the Second Invasion.

**-Middleton-**

Ron let out an angry breath as he surveyed the mess in front of him. Packing had never been his strong suit and the results of that truth were spread out on his bed in mute testament to the many reasons that for many years Yori had done the packing for both of them before they left on a mission. Now though she wasn't there to do it and despite what everyone had told him he couldn't stop thinking that it was his fault. Running through his memories of that chase on the storm swept cliffs he could see any number of things he could have done that might have bought them the precious little time they would have needed to get away if not safely at least both alive.

He also knew that Kim's dad and Sensei both thought it was a good thing for him to be going on this mission since it would serve to get him over losing Yori just as Kim thought it was a bad idea because he needed time away from missions to get over losing Yori. In his mind though they were both wrong, Ron didn't think he'd ever get over losing Yori, not when he saw the gaping hole in his heart as his fault. The reason he'd taken this mission rather than staying back to 'recover' was that he could hopefully lose himself in the stress and tension of rescuing this Princess Bonnie and even if it wouldn't help him get over Yori it might at least for a time dull the pain.

"Hey Ron," Ron looked over his shoulder to see Kim open the door and walk into his room, "probably not the best time to ask but how are you doing?"

"About how you'd think," Ron attempted a smile, "and I still can't pack to save my own life."

"At least that's still the same about you," Kim's attempt at a smile was even worse, "You've been so down and depressed since everything happened and it's just not like you. I know you'll do everything you can to rescue Bonnie but promise me this Ron, promise me you'll come back alive and you won't do anything stupid out there."

The idea had never entered Ron's head but seeing tears in Kim's eyes made him realize how worried she was for him, "Kim… I can't guarantee nothing will happen to me, that last mission should prove that point. But I promise you if something does happen to me it won't be because I tried to have it happen and I won't go looking for any fights I don't have to."

"Thanks," Kim wrapped him in a hug and buried her head in his shoulder, "I always get so worried about you while I'm stuck waiting back here while you're out there doing all the dangerous work. You should hurry up and pack though, as much as I don't want to see you go Bonnie needs rescuing and you're the man for the job."

"Packing can wait," Ron said as he returned Kim's hug, "I'm bad enough at it that it's going to take awhile no matter what I do. And besides, you're more important anyways."

"What'd I do to deserve such a great friend?" Kim smiled as she pulled back, "You really do need to get packed though, I'll be fine here and if she's not rescued soon Bonnie won't be fine."

"Okay," Ron gave in, "it's still going to take me awhile to figure out what in this whole mess I really need and get it into my bag."

"Alright then," Kim put her hands on her hips and surveyed his bed, "go sit over there and I'll take care of this, years of practicing getting the bags the staff packs for me down to a realistic size has given me some mean bag packing skills."

Ron collapsed into the lone chair in his room and watched as Kim worked quickly and efficiently putting in his bag only what he absolutely needed and couldn't buy or forage on his way. He couldn't help thinking how this was just any number of things he witnessed Kim doing that didn't bear any resemblance to the pictures of princesses in the classic stories but that seemed perfectly normal for his best friend. And as he thought about how Kim wasn't a typical princess he couldn't help wondering what Princess Bonnie would be like when he found her. She and Kim had met once a few years ago and Kim had come away calling her bossy, opinionated, and bordering on arrogant. But then Ron had talked to several people who had thought the same about Kim and he knew that to be far from the truth, he supposed that with Kim's opinion on one hand and knowing how opinions could be wrong on the other he'd have to wait till he met her to find out the truth about Princess Bonnie.

"Done," Kim's voice pulled him out of his reverie, "honestly Ron I hope you don't have to pack anything on this trip of yours you'd be completely helpless without me there to pack for you."

"I'm sure I'm not _that_ bad," Ron mock pouted, "and in any case since packing bags appears to be a skill among princesses if I have anything to repack I'll get Princess Bonnie to pack it for me on the way home."

"Good luck with that," Kim scoffed, "Bonnie was so bossy that one time I met her by the time she's finished bossing you around you'll have to gag her and tie her over your shoulder to get her to go anywhere."

"Come on Kim," Ron chuckled, "she can't be as terrible as you're making her out to be."

"I suppose if you wanna compare her to her sisters then sure," Kim admitted, "but if she's half as bad as she was when I met her when you get back here you'll want to go right back just to get away from her."

"Ironic," Ron held up a finger, "everyone in the world is looking for Princess Bonnie and you're telling one of the few people who knows where she is to go in the opposite direction."

"I didn't say that," Kim picked up a shirt she hadn't put in the bag and threw it at him, "I said once you've saved her you'll want to run in the opposite direction. I suppose if someone has to go save her, as much as I think you should stay here, you're the best person for the job. Anyone else really would gag her and tie her over their shoulder and that would mean months of calming her down and probably sacrificing a good person before we could actually get her to start being useful."

"I'm sure I'll find plenty of other mistakes to make," Ron smiled, "but I guess I really do need to get going or else my first and last mistake will be getting there too late and seeing the whole Drakanadian army riding away with her tied up in the middle of them."

"I hate to say it but you're right," Kim frowned before forcing a smile on her face, "but there's nothing that says your best friend can't walk you down to the gates and see you on your way."

"Not at all," Ron stood up and grabbed his bag, "your dad made sure to give me the whole pep talk earlier just so no one would come barging in on us."

Kim and Ron walked down the palace halls uninterrupted but for a few servants who stopped to bow or curtsey quickly before their princess. In short order they walked down from the paneled and well lit upper palace into the bare walled lower palace and from there into the foundations hewn from the bedrock itself. At last Ron opened a door and daylight streamed in, he and Kim walked out into a small stable and courtyard on the side of the palace empty but for two horses and one man.

"Captain Mankey," Kim said, "you warned us about the Drakanadians moving faster than we thought, told us where Princess Bonnie is, and now you're taking my best friend to rescue her, is there anything you can't do in this war?"

"You give me far too much credit highness," Captain Mankey bowed, "I've been little more than a glorified messenger and there are far greater warriors out there than I."

"Nonsense," Kim waved his protests off, "as much as I hate to have to trust the safety of my best friend to anyone but me I think I'll sleep okay knowing a rising war hero is traveling with him to the front lines."

"I'm hardly a hero," Captain Mankey tugged at his chain mail, "I've just been lucky to stay alive this long. Your friend is much more a hero than I am, going behind enemy lines to rescue a princess."

"Such modesty Captain Mankey, at this rate you'll make a general before long." Kim turned to face him, "Speaking of my best friend I'm going to hold you to your promise to come back safely Ron."

"I know Kim," Ron hugged her before mounting his horse, "I'll be back before you know it. I mean with a war hero as my traveling companion what could possibly happen?"

Kim watched as Captain Mankey heaved a sigh as the two rode out the small gate into the city. Left alone she simply stood there waiting.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

If the Drakanadian army had finally discovered subtlety in their invasion of the Rockwall Kingdom the message had obviously not gotten to the detachment of soldiers searching Felix's village for Princess Bonnie. Fortunately the intelligence that had led to that subtlety had also not penetrated to the thuggish brutes tearing apart his village in their search for the princess. At the same time he rather hoped that even if there were some intelligent men among them that Princess Bonnie was well hidden enough to escape notice by anyone who didn't already know where she was. And that number was thankfully small, the total number in the village who knew where Princess Bonnie was, including the princess herself, could be counted on one hand, in the world it took a few fingers on a second hand as far as he knew. Not that Felix or anyone thought that any of the villagers would betray their princess, simply that they had heard the Drakanadians had interrogation techniques that didn't need to break someone to get the information and the fewer people at risk for that the better.

"At least these ones are as stupid as the last ones who came through here," Brick walked up to him, "I know I'm not the smartest guy to ever live but compared to these guys I'm a genius."

"No complaints here," Felix whispered from his wheelchair, "having to put up with these guys once a week is bad enough but they just barge around and don't really accomplish anything. I'd get a bit scared if someone competent comes along, not exactly a lot of places to hide someone in a village this size."

"We could always try hiding her in the woods around the village," Brick said, "lots more places to hide someone out there."

Felix stared as a platoon of soldiers marched down the street before responding, "The problem is they always surround the village and comb the woods looking for resistance members before they search the village itself and that search is a lot more thorough."

"Your attention please!" A Drakanadian officer shouted before Brick or Felix could say anything more, "fortunately for you we have determined you are not hiding any persons we are interested in talking to. Were we to find any of these people I promise you our vengeance would be swift and complete. However should any of you know where any of those people are and wish to tell us their locations your immediate reward would be great and the reward you would receive once we are masters of the entire world would be greater still. For now we shall leave you but to any here who wish us ill sleep restlessly for the hour of our return will be a surprise."

"Every week it's always a 'surprise,' and every week they show one the same day at the same time," Brick leaned over, "but you have to admit that guy sounded pretty competent, maybe we should take care of him before he has an opportunity to really look for the princess."

"I don't know about competent," Felix wheeled into the street as the Drakanadian soldiers started marching out of the village, "whoever wrote that speech is pretty competent, he's just lucky to be able to read. And unless you can guarantee they can't tie it anywhere near us I don't think we should do anything to draw attention to this neck of the kingdom until the princess is safely in Middleton."

"I guess you're right," Brick sighed, "It's just that her highness isn't used to sitting around like this doing practically nothing for so long and the stress is getting to her. I suppose it's getting to the rest of the guards too, we're used to being able to deal with any threats to the royal family head on and all this sneaking around and hiding is a real blow to our pride."

"I think the whole kingdom is feeling a bit like that," Felix stopped and looked up at the sky, "we spent the last five hundred years getting ready to fight the Drakanadians at the northern forts and when they got by them we all went into shock. And now no one wants to do anything to get the Drakanadians too mad at us until we know the princess is safe, it's like the whole world is holding its breath waiting for her to be found."

"Nothing says I have to like it though," Brick pointed out, "I spent my whole life training to guard the princess, not hide her from barbarians."

Felix smiled wryly, "I spent my whole life training to follow in my father's footsteps not be stuck in a wheelchair, all we can do is make the best of whatever comes our way. And if we hide her highness from these barbarians until she's rescued then you'll have done your job and I'll have done my patriotic duty."

"I know that," Brick kicked at the ground, "I just want to figure out something we can do to be useful until then."

"That's easy," Felix stopped in front of the house where Princess Bonnie was hiding, "we know our message got through to Middleton and we know they're sending someone to rescue her, all we can do is keep waiting."

AN: Hope everyone had a safe few holidays. I am now officially employed for the summer but I can write around that easily enough. I promised you all some action coming up and here should be starting to deliver, everything for this arc of the story is in motion and if I can con you back for a few more chapters you'll see it all fall into place. Any questions, comments, concerns, donations to get me through law school, drop me a line. Ciao all.


	7. Collision Course

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Slowly but surely I shall earn enough money to buy Kim Possible, but till then don't own it.

Chapter Six: Collision Course

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XX, subject Tara-

Like many of the important figures of the Second Invasion Tara was born into modest means. Extremely modest in her case as she was born an illegitimate child and therefore left with her mother, a scullery maid. For the first several years of her life Tara followed in her mother's footsteps and began to learn the necessary skills to spend her life as a scullery maid in the lower reaches of the castle at the heart of the Rockwall Kingdom. Obviously enough this is not how her life transpired as one day fate decreed that her life's path should be radically altered.

Traitors though they might have been as adults, as girls Princesses Connie and Lonnie were merely mean spirited and vain girls who took every opportunity possible to pick on and tease their younger sister. Being a victim of such abuse herself Princess Bonnie took a rather grim view from a young age of such things happening to others. One day she happened to witness the children of several high officials picking on a young blonde girl who happened to be the daughter of a lowly servant, quickly she chased them off and helped the young girl to her feet. At that moment was born a friendship whose depth would be exceeded only by that between Princess Kim and Ron Stoppable.

Princess Bonnie and Tara quickly befriended each other and over the next several years they proved a nearly inseparable pair. Princess Bonnie gained insights into her subjects that her sisters would never dream of as well as learning humility, patience, and many other traits necessary in a good ruler. Tara learned to read and write, something few people born into her station could ever hope to achieve. Also she stopped learning to be a scullery maid and instead began courses that would lead her to a life as an administrator, more than likely a personal assistant to Princess Bonnie given their friendship.

Stranded in the castle by the Second Invasion, Tara was able to use her access to Princess Connie and Lonnie's personal correspondence to funnel important information to the resistance and from there to allied armies fighting to liberate the Rockwall Kingdom. This among other things during the Second Invasion makes her far more important than one might suspect one servant in a castle to be.

**-Three Kingdoms, Five Days Later-**

Ron reached into his bag and pulled out his blanket, the sky was clear so he didn't need to bother setting up a tent. Over at his horse Josh fumbled around in his bags looking for his blanket. Setting his blanket on the ground Ron took his saddle off his horse and tied it to a nearby tree with plenty of grass nearby for the horse to eat. Then he searched around and found enough freshly fallen pine needles to make if not a comfortable bed at least one that would be better than bare ground. Walking back he saw Josh had at least taken care of his horse but that he hadn't done any of the other things needed to make even a basic camp.

"I don't mean to pry or anything," Ron dropped off the load of pine needles he'd been carrying, "but do you need help over there?"

Josh looked over at him from where he was sitting on his blanket, "I wasn't kidding when I told her highness that I'm really not all those stories make me out to be. I just keep being in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up getting credit for what I didn't even do or for something that really doesn't deserve all the attention it gets."

"You're… serious," Ron started gathering some rocks to make a fire pit, "I guess it's not so bad though, Kim is always going on about how we need heroes during times like this and I guess even if you're just a normal soldier like me people still need to see a hero and you've gotten the job."

"I wish it was like that," Josh sighed, "I graduated near the bottom of my basic training class and at the bottom of my officer training class. When I came back here with that message about where Princess Bonnie is I was going to tell the king that I'm really not a hero. But then before I could he took me to a hospital where a bunch of wounded soldiers were recovering, and the looks on their faces… I just couldn't tell a bunch of guys who wanted to get back into the fight and be like me that I'm nothing like their hero."

"It's tough," Ron used some flint and a knife to start a small fire, "I'm not sure what anyone told you about what I do but if you didn't hear much that's kinda the point. I do my thing and no one ever hears about it if I'm lucky. I guess it just comes down to we're all part of something bigger than ourselves when it comes to this and we just do what we can. You stay alive and be a hero, I'll go rescue the princess and hopefully no one who didn't know it already knows it was me who did it. Who knows, you might even wind up getting the credit for it."

"Please no," Josh actually seemed to beg, "I just want to get through the rest of this war as quietly and boringly as possible. No more heroics for me and definitely no more combat, I've probably used up all my luck for the rest of my life staying alive this long."

"I don't think it's gonna turn out like that," Ron used a few sticks to prop some rabbits they'd caught earlier in the day over the fire, "did you ever read a news sheet or listen to any of the town criers while you were in Middleton?"

"No," Josh's face paled, "should I have?"

"I'm not sure you needed to," Ron sat down next to the fire, "but at the rate they're going you're going to be as famous as anyone in the old stories by the time this war is over. I even heard people saying you should be betrothed to Kim so you could make the bloodline even stronger."

Josh just stared at him before finally stammering out a response, "you… you're kidding right, please say you're not actually serious."

"Serious how?" Ron asked, "Serious like I think you two should be betrothed or serious like I heard lots of people talking about it?"

"You think we should be betrothed?" Josh squeaked out, "but you know that all the stories about me are totally fake, how could you want the Princess of the Three Kingdoms to be betrothed to _me_?"

"First off I don't care that you're not what all the stories make you out to be," Ron started ticking off fingers, "Kim's like my sister so I just want to make sure whatever guy she ends up marrying is right for her. Second I don't know you well enough to have an opinion about what I'd do if you wanted to court Kim. If we were going to be traveling for more than four more days together I might be able to get one but my third thing is that it doesn't even sound like you want to be betrothed to Kim."

"Don't get me wrong," Josh held up his hands defensively, "I'm sure her highness is a great person and that any guy would be lucky to spend the rest of his life with her. It's just that I'm not nearly old enough to be deciding something like that. I know peasants our age are probably already working on a second kid but they're not talking about Princess Kimberly. And most of them already know each other, they probably grew up a farm or two over. I've only talked to the Princess two or three times and I know some couples never see each other before they get married but I don't want that to be me. And then there's my parents, if they heard people saying that the Princess and I should be betrothed I'd end up married to her before either of us knew what happened."

"Never thought about it like that," Ron pulled the rabbits off the fire, "I'm pretty sure if I ever get married it won't be to anyone who would get noticed. And I don't have any parents to drag me to a wedding."

"No one you want to get married to?" Josh said around a mouthful, "Even if you don't want to marry into nobility I'm sure you know at least a few girls."

"I had a girlfriend," Ron stared into the fire, "but she… the Drakanadians killed her."

"Sorry," Josh said quietly, "I, uh didn't know."

"It's okay," Ron picked a piece of meat off his rabbit, "like I said no one is supposed to know when people like me do something. And that also means that when one of us gets killed no one outside that little circle is ever supposed to know."

"That's… that's depressing," Josh tossed the remnants of his rabbit into the fire, "makes me kinda guilty for living this long when someone who knows what they're doing is dead and it really makes me wonder how much longer I can last when I'm this bad at war."

"I don't think I can do much about your feeling guilty," Ron followed suit with his rabbit, "but in four days I can at least make a dent in how bad you are at combat."

"Okay," Josh said, "so we start tomorrow?"

"Nope," Ron reached into his bag and pulled out a sword, "go get your sword, there's still light and then it's a full moon tonight."

Over the next four days the kept up a pace that wasn't too hard on their horses but still ate up ground at a good pace. Whenever they stopped Ron had their swords out and was making Josh practice his sword work. When they were riding along Ron talked about various forms and styles of swordsmanship that they would then practice when they stopped for the night. Josh listened and practiced as much as he could, not just because of lingering guilt but because he didn't want to die during this war and he saw learning how to fight as his best chance for survival. Working their way northwards the Rockwall Mountains steadily grew out of the horizon over the course of a day until they took up the whole northern sky. As few miles as it was in a straight line it took them another day and a half to get through the passes, the time probably would have been twice that were the routes not all paved to ease traffic. Finally they made it to the section of the line that Josh was in command of and that Ron was going to sneak through to rescue Princess Bonnie.

"I guess this is where our path together ends," Josh walked with Ron up to the trenches, "I think about all I can do is wish you good luck."

"It can't hurt," Ron slung his bag over his shoulder, "getting in there won't be too hard, getting out is going to be where it gets fun."

"Thanks for everything you taught me on the way here," Josh stuck out his hand, "I feel like I'm just bad at this now instead of totally incompetent."

"As Kim would say, no big." Ron shook his hand, "you know your limitations so as long as you don't get killed you'll do alright."

With that Ron hopped down into the trench, the sun went down shortly thereafter and in the gloom of twilight Josh only barely saw Ron's outline crawl out of the trench towards Drakanadian lines.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

Tara poked her head out the door and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing an empty hallway. Straightening her skirts she stepped out of Connie and Lonnie's apartments and making sure to appear as though she belonged everywhere she went walked down several flights of stairs to a small courtyard on the side of the castle. Another quick peek showed that the courtyard was empty as twilight slowly faded into darkness. Tara walked quickly out into the courtyard and over to a particular barrel, pulling off the top she slipped several papers into a hollowed out section of one of the boards. Those papers contained all the latest correspondence from the Drakanadian army that happened to cross the princesses' desks. Tara knew she was staying up to date and being useful by listening to Drakanadian generals curse at how the allies always seemed to know where they were going to attack or where their defenses were weakest.

That despair among her enemies was her only source of joy since Connie and Lonnie took over the kingdom. And in the last few weeks it had gotten considerably harder to sneak her messages out of the castle, with the Drakanadian emperor himself in the castle security had gotten much, much tighter. As bad as that was it was the creepy green lady who really freaked Tara out, she seemed to appear in places without any sound or other warning and Tara could have sworn she saw a green glow around her hands when she got angry. At least Connie and Lonnie hadn't gotten any smarter and were still leaving highly classified information on their desks that Tara could plain walk in and copy. She supposed that if they were thinking a little harder they might remember she could read and write as well as they could and stop leaving things where she could read them. But thankfully their vanity and pride totally blinded them and they seemed to act as if Tara was barely capable of human thought.

At least they were spending less time each day hounding her and making her do things over and over, with their partners in crime in the city they had to at least appear for the time being as capable rulers rather than two petulant little girls hell-bent on using the resources of the Rockwall Kingdom for their own shallow pursuits. Tara would of course have traded Connie and Lonnie looking over her shoulder more often a million times over to not have all the extra guards crawling around the castle that she had to dodge to get her messages out. And then she had to dodge them period, she had never met a group of men with such wondering hands and eyes but these Drakanadian soldiers seemed intent on making every use they could of the victors perks. Most of the girls in the castle shared her distaste for the brutes but Connie, Lonnie, and several of their lackeys seemed to be eager to let the soldiers indulge their baser instincts.

Several times in fact Tara had been ordered by Connie, Lonnie, or one of their lackeys to fetch someone else in their little camp only to find the door locked and hear rather indecent sounds coming out of the room for quite some time. Several more times Tara thought that the princesses had been on the verge of ordering her to join in their debauchery but somehow she'd always escaped or they'd been distracted and hadn't managed to wrangle her in. If what she heard was right though some of the other servants around the castle and even some people off the streets hadn't been so lucky and more than a few of those had spent more than a little while huddled in their beds trying desperately to forget what had happened to them. Tara supposed that ironically enough while Connie and Lonnie were by far the worst of the lot being their personal servant did give her a small bit of protection, others wouldn't dare touch her for fear of their wrath and their need to appear busy kept her doing things when they might otherwise think her unoccupied enough to force her to join them.

Sneaking back the way she came Tara stopped only in the kitchens to grab a slice of bread and some roast lamb before continuing up to the princesses' chambers. In the past she would have used such free time to go back to her room and rest or seek out her friends and try to catch up with them. These days though everyone always kept up the appearance of being busy even if they were accomplishing absolutely nothing, to do otherwise risked attention from the wrong people. And not just Connie, Lonnie, and their ilk, Drakanadian security watched everyone they could as closely as they could and saw conspiracies behind every curtain and under every carpet. Almost, almost amusingly enough they were in their own twisted way actually right to be suspicious, the castle staff did everything they could to make the day to day running of the occupied Rockwall Kingdom as inefficient as possible and they managed to keep the Drakanadians in a running headache for lost messages, misplaced files, and every manner of inconvenience they could think of or make up on the spot.

That didn't stop Connie and Lonnie from walking up to her all smiles on her way to their apartments, "Tara, for once we're actually glad to see you. We have the most fantastic news ever. Well fantastic for us, you'll probably think it's a bit less joyful but we really couldn't care less about what you think."

Since they hadn't given her express permission to speak Tara had to settle for a curious look to try to prod more out of Connie and Lonnie.

"We've finally found our little sister," Connie started and then Lonnie continued, "We've had wanted posters put out for her guards and one of the soldiers coming back from the countryside recognized them and directed us the right way. Our scouts have confirmed that they're still in the village waiting for something. We already have an entire division of Drakanadian soldiers marching towards the village, they'll be there tomorrow night."

Tara couldn't quite contain her gasp, it was going to be all she could do to get a message ready and make it down before someone in the resistance picked up her messages for the night and then it would be too late to alert them to Bonnie's impending danger.

Then her hopes were dashed, "Of course our dear little sister being dragged back here in chains will be cause for celebration, as will our finally getting to execute you in front of her before we give her what's in store for her. But don't worry you'll be able to help in your own little way, we do need someone to pick out our dresses for the party and then help us into them tomorrow. You'll have the privilege of coming with us to pick out our dresses and then when you wake up tomorrow you can help us into them before we take you to the dungeon where you'll wait for the executioner. I know it doesn't sound like much fun for you, and it shouldn't, but we'll be enjoying ourselves plenty and that's what matters."

Tara barely kept herself standing as she slowly tailed after the princesses. The prospect of her own death didn't scare her much, it had been impending for far too long to affect her anymore. But the fact that she couldn't do anything to save her best friend and she would have to see her dragged into the castle in chains before she died nearly brought her to tears.

AN: Told you all working wouldn't slow me down writing. I know I'm evil to leave all of you with a cliffhanger like this but I'm just evil like that. No promises on who it is or if it's anyone important to the story but people are going to bite it next chapter, just thought I'd let you know before leaving you, ciao.


	8. Winners and Losers

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: A pox on those who still think I own Kim Possible

Chapter Seven: Winners and Losers

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XIII, subject Josh Mankey-

Oddly enough Josh Mankey is one of the more controversial figures of the Second Invasion despite being known as a hero during that time second in renown only to Ron Stoppable himself. What is at issue is not so much the man himself but rather what he has come to represent. Fierce scholarly debate still rages over whether or not the nobility of the Three Kingdoms became 'soft' between the First Invasion and the Second Invasion and what effects that had upon the course of the Second Invasion. The Royal Archive's own opinion on this matter can be found in the appropriate article however this entry will not speculate on such.

Born to noble parents in the Kingdom of Upperton Josh displayed impressive artistic talents almost from the day he was old enough to pick up a brush. As he grew older Josh also keen administrative skills, while not as keen as his artistic abilities his administrative skills were such that any lands placed under his stewardship would with little doubt prosper. He however displayed next to no aptitude for the martial aspects of his noble obligations, military records state that Josh graduated in the bottom quarter of his basic training class and dead last in his officer candidate class. How then did he achieve such legendary status during the Second Invasion?

All historical investigations seem to point to several key phases, in the opening stages of the war Josh seemed to be almost a victim of fortune, always in the right place at the right time to unwittingly and often unwillingly take credit for things. After traveling from Middleton with Ron Stoppable reports from contemporaries seem to indicate that his martial skills increased significantly, however it is important to note that even significant improvement left a great deal to be desired. What is a conundrum to scholars is the latter stages of the Second Invasion, all attempts to discover how Josh Mankey suddenly seems to have become a warrior with few peers have achieved very little. Nor are they likely to as all those who would have knowledge of such never spoke of it during their lifetimes and no written accounts have ever been found.

**-Northern Rockwall Kingdom-**

Ron stifled his yawn into the bend of his arm as the sun slowly crept over the mountains, he had ridden the last two nights straight but if the directions he had been given were correct the village he was looking for was barely a mile up the road. Despite that he did have some doubts that he could even stay awake for that last mile much less long enough to get the princess a safe distance before they stopped to rest. The real kicker as far as he was concerned was that he wasn't quite sure why he had ridden himself and his horse so hard to get here as fast as he had. He knew time was a limited factor in rescuing the princess but the Drakanadians hadn't found her for over a month and there was no reason to expect their luck would change anytime in the near future. But a little voice in his head he had come to associate with his Mystical Monkey Power had compelled him to keep going, sleep was an elusive wish and even the desire to stop and rest for an hour or less was present only when absolutely necessary.

Perhaps it might have been a necessity then but as close as he was to finding the princess Ron figured he could count on adrenaline to start kicking in and keep him going long enough to get to safety As he groggily looked on his horse trod along the road cutting between small farms scratching crops out of the rocky ground, the few people he saw seemed to regard him with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. Obviously with the kingdom occupied any stranger could be a threat but he was only one traveler and the Drakanadians went anywhere in force. That was about the extent of their reaction to him, as much as they likely wanted to rake him over coals to find out what he was doing there they didn't dare risk drawing the attention of the occupiers so he continued along on his way without incident.

That had been the story of most of his trek through the Rockwall Kingdom, he had stolen a horse from the Drakanadian army after sneaking through their lines and once he was past where the war had ground over the landscape he had made quite good time. Drakanadian soldiers were oddly thin on the ground but during the one stop he had made a drunken lieutenant had complained that too many soldiers were needed at the front lines for them to occupy territory as firmly as they'd like. Ron had at the time feigned sympathy but he was perfectly fine with the Drakanadians not having enough soldiers to police the kingdom as much as they wanted to, it certainly made his job easier and when he got Princess Bonnie back to Middleton he could think of several people who would like to hear that as well.

Gradually the farms started thinning out into close cropped pasture and after a band of trees Ron entered a small village, the people seemed to be not at all surprised by his arrival and he couldn't helped wondering how many of those peasants he had ridden by had run down some hidden trail to alert their village that a stranger was on the way. The problem he realized almost at once was going to be convincing whoever was hiding the princess that he wasn't Drakanadian, somehow no one had ever arranged a signal he was supposed to give or receive to clear up that little detail. He hoped, though with a fair bit of caution, that somehow it had been communicated he was coming and that since the Drakanadians had no clue where the princess was they'd realize he was from the Three Kingdoms when he started poking around.

Ron dismounted from his horse and started walking alongside it as he slowly made his way into the center of the village, the first thing he needed to do was find someone in charge, most likely someone on the village council or whatever they had around here. As he and his horse came into the large square at the center of the village Ron decided to simply ask someone if they could take him to anyone in charge. The first person he ran into who didn't seem to be making an effort to ignore him was a young man about his own age who was making his own way across the square in a wheelchair.

"Um hi," Ron said as he walked up to the young man, "if it wouldn't be too much trouble could you take me to someone on your village council, or elder's circle, or really whatever outfit is running this place?"

"Sure," the young man said, "follow me."

Ron walked behind the young man as he wheeled along, he was pretty certain that he wasn't going where he wanted but all things considered he couldn't blame them for being suspicious and he did have to start somewhere.

"You can tie your horse up here," the young man pointed to a post next to the door of the building they'd come to, "then just follow me in."

Ron tied his horse up and then opened the door, the young man wheeled himself in first and Ron followed after, as soon as he closed the door and turned around he found himself facing a rather impressive assortment of weapons ranging from swords and spears to several crossbows aimed right at his head.

"I'm guessing this isn't a breakfast meeting," Ron made a feeble attempt to defuse the situation.

His attempt was obviously enough futile as well as feeble and he was quickly shoved into a chair where the grim faced men around him kept their weapons pointed at him and quite ready to use.

"Okay," a much larger blonde man walked up to him, "I'm going to cut right to it, whatever the Drakanadians sent you here to do it's not going to work. So how about you tell us what you were here to find and we'll let you go tell them it isn't here."

"I'm not a Drakanadian though," Ron protested, "I'm from the Three Kingdoms, you sent that message asking us to send someone to rescue Princess Bonnie, that's me."

"No you're not," the wheelchair bound man said, "I have to admit that your equipment is the real deal, probably taken off some dead soldiers unless your armories have all of a sudden gotten much better than they are. But there's no way to hide that your horse is Drakanadian, no army south of the Rockwall Mountains uses horses like that."

"The horse is Drakanadian," Ron admitted, "but I stole him. You didn't really expect anyone to be able to sneak a horse through their lines did you?"

"I suppose that is true," the blonde man started pacing back and forth, "but if you really are who you say you are then what's the signal you were supposed to give?"

"There wasn't one," Ron said, "really some pretty bad planning on someone's part. I mean how the heck were we supposed to avoid getting stuck here without some way for me to tell you guys who I am besides begging you like this?"

The blonde man and his wheelchair counterpart, obviously the leaders, stepped aside and started speaking quietly. Fortunately for Ron he could use his Mystical Monkey Power to make his hearing just a bit better than most people's and he managed to listen in on the two.

"I think he's telling the truth Brick," The wheelchair man said, "we didn't really come up with any way for whomever the Three Kingdoms sent to identify themselves and any spy would have made something up, plus everything he's saying does add up."

"You're being way too trusting Felix," the blonde, now Brick, said, "Let's keep him up for a few days and he'll be so tired he'll start blurting out the truth without thinking about it. Then we'll really see, or we can just get him roaring drunk and see if that loosens his tongue a bit."

"I'm not sure if we have that kind of time," Felix started tapping his fingers on his armrest, "the Drakanadians are starting to get suspicious of something around here and I think if we don't get her highness out of here soon we won't be able to at all."

"Which is why we need to make sure this guy is who he says he is," Brick argued, "the princess does need to get out of here but she needs to be going to Middleton, not to a Drakanadian prison and then an executioner."

"If the Drakanadians thought she was here they wouldn't send one man," Felix said urgently, "there's too much chance he ends up like that guy over there. The Drakanadians would send an entire division of soldiers to make sure they got the job done. The Three Kingdoms would send one man though, they'd have to do a lot of sneaking around and the more people you bring the harder that gets."

"We're not getting anywhere like this," Brick sighed, "I think you're right that he's not here to try to kill her highness but I'm still not sure he's here to rescue her. Let's take him and let Princess Bonnie decide."

"Works for me," Felix agreed.

"Alright," Brick turned to face Ron, "come with us, we're going to let someone else decide what happens to you. And just so we can stop calling you 'you,' what's your name?"

"Ron," Ron answered, "Ron Stoppable."

"Start walking then Ron," Brick picked up a sword, "and no funny business if you don't want to get a first hand view of what's inside you."

Ron swallowed slightly hard but walked ahead of the two as they directed him to a small, almost decrepit building on the outskirts of town. Upon closer inspection though Ron could see that while the building appeared in a state of disrepair it was in fact well constructed and while not the prettiest of places to live would serve for someone trying to avoid notice.

Brick walked up ahead and knocked on the door in what appeared to be a pre-determined sequence, the door opened and he poked his head inside. Quiet words were exchanged that Ron chose not to listen in on and he was then motioned forward.

"Her highness will decide if you're telling the truth or not," Felix said to him, "she has the most at stake here so it's only right she has the final word on if we trust you or not."

Ron stepped into the small house and finally got a look at Princess Bonnie. She was… pretty certainly, but it occurred to Ron that he had up to this point managed to ignore what a month of stress and hiding would do to her. Her hair had become somewhat straggly and fell down to the middle of her back, the dress she was in seemed several sizes too big for her and he got the impression that in addition to being under a lot of stress she had missed more than a few meals over the last month. What truly struck him though was her face, he knew that he looked like a man who hadn't slept for several days, since he hadn't, but next to her he looked like someone who had simply had a rough day. The bags under her eyes were truly amazing and one look in her eyes showed fatigue and pressure like even he had never known.

However for all the fatigue in her eyes he could still see the intelligence and spirit behind them as she looked him over, "This is my rescue? Ugh, let's just send someone to tell my sisters where I am now."

"I resent that," Ron mimicked the cold tone, "I managed to get here just fine and I think I can get one snooty princess back to Middleton without too much trouble."

"Yeah right," Bonnie stood up, "you look like you can barely stand. If you're the best the Three Kingdoms has to offer we'll all be bowing to the Drakanadians before summer ends."

"You're one to talk," Ron sniped back, "and besides you're the rescuee, you don't get to complain about who your rescuer is. Now if you don't mind _your highness_ I'd like to be well out of here before the sun goes down, I've got a bad feeling about staying here too long."

"Just hold it right there," Bonnie glared at him, "one, you don't get to talk to me like that. And two, we'll go where I say when I say."

"Ah no, one, I'll talk to you however I darn well please" Ron returned the glare, "and two, I'm doing the rescuing, that means I decide what we do and I say we get the heck out of here now."

"This isn't working," Felix put himself between the two, "it's only midday so how about we get some food into both of you and see if that doesn't calm you two down enough to make a decision. You do need to get out of here your highness and the faster the better. But Mr. Stoppable she's probably even more exhausted than you are and it won't do you much good if you have to carry her the whole way back to Middleton."

"Don't tempt me," Ron muttered under his breath as they walked out of the building.

Lunch was a brief but tense affair, a simple meal of vegetables and some fish that had been caught from a nearby lake filled the stomach and restored Ron's energy. The company however left plenty to be desired, he got the impression that with enough time he and Felix could become rather good friends but Princess Bonnie was everything Kim had said she would be. In the end it wasn't even the two of them who came to an agreement, Brick and Felix decided that they would leave as the sun went down and if they started off eastwards they would hopefully escape notice in the darkness. Under pressure from the two of them he and Bonnie had grudgingly agreed to their terms before they had both sought out places to get a few precious hours of sleep.

Ron woke up about an hour before sundown and left the room he'd been given to find his horse had been moved to right outside the house and much to his relief all his belongings were right where he had left them. He found Felix waiting in the town square and with a minimum of greeting since both recognized time as an issue they set a good pace to the house on the outskirts of town where Princess Bonnie was hidden. Bonnie it seemed had woken up not too much later than him and had apparently already had what few belongings she'd had on her when she'd come into the village packed for some time in anticipation of a rescue attempt.

"Let's get going," Bonnie practically bristled with irritation, "as useless as you are if you can get me back to Middleton I can find someone who can actually do something about getting these people out of my kingdom."

"Look Bonnie," Ron whirled around on her, "I know you've been a bit out of touch stuck in that little room of yours but a lot of people have already gotten killed doing just that. Once you get back to Middleton it might get through your thick skull but if we don't get going the only thing getting into your thick skull will be whatever the Drakanadians choose to execute you with."

"Fine," Bonnie grumbled, "let's get going. I assume we'll be meeting my guards in the woods and they'll follow us the rest of the way?"

"No," Ron threw her bags onto the back of his horse, "they're hiding out in the woods so that if the Drakanadians come through they won't see them. It's just going to be us sneaking back to Middleton, getting two of us back is going to be enough of a problem and more people only means more problems."

"Ruin everything then," Bonnie threw her hands up in exasperation, "at this rate we'll be my sister's 'guests' by tomorrow morning."

"You've got that right," a thick brogue interrupted the two, "I'm general Duff Killigan and you two are under arrest!"

"Go, go!" Ron shouted as he jumped up onto his horse and pulled Bonnie up behind him.

Ron spurred the horse into a flat gallop, he was willing to bet that somewhere out in the woods he'd run into a line of Drakanadian soldiers but he figured that he could deal with them with relatively few problems. The more immediate problem was the dozen or so Drakanadian cavalry soldiers following them. Both he and Bonnie were light people and with their armor on them the cavalrymen weighed about as much as they did combined. They were however also elite soldiers and very skilled on their horses so Ron only managed to keep about as much a lead as he'd had distance from them when the chase began. Perhaps even more worrisome than that was when he discovered they were carrying crossbows as a bolt slammed into a tree not even a foot away. Bonnie let out a shriek and her grip tightened on him to the point where it nearly began to constrict his ability to breathe.

They wound through the trees, always trying to keep eastwards towards the mountains in the hope of loosing their pursuers, several times the canopy of trees overhead meant that so little of the evening light got through to the ground that the sound of galloping hooves was their only way of telling how much distance they had gained or lost. Ron's adrenaline was definitely kicked in and on top of that he had started using his Mystical Monkey Power to speed up his reaction time and enhance his senses. Bonnie's grip on him was so tight though that even with his Mystical Monkey Power he could feel he wasn't reacting quite as fast as he could for a lack of oxygen. For all his heightened senses he failed to see the tripwire that had been placed on the ground, he did however see the pike it tripped to spring up. Not in time to prevent it from skewering the horse and dumping him and Bonnie on the ground though.

"You okay," he said as they scrambled to their feet and grabbed their bags, "nothing broken?"

"I'm fine," Bonnie was already running east, "but how are we going to get away from them now?"

"Same way we were before," Ron caught up with her, "I'm winging it!"

The trip wire had apparently been put in place by the Drakanadian soldiers manning a perimeter designed to keep them from escaping. Ironically, approaching on foot might have saved them since as the Drakanadian cavalry caught up to them it drew the attention of the footmen and let Ron and Bonnie get in among them before they knew what was happening. Bonnie was clearly no fighter but she knew enough to stick close to him and let him do his job without getting in his way or getting so far away that he had to come after her. They almost made a clean getaway through the lines and into woods so dense they couldn't be tracked when the Drakanadian cavalry came charging down on them. Even then they almost made it through untouched, the horsemen weren't there to harm Bonnie so they focused wholly on Ron and he dodged all but the last strike which was delivered by General Killigan himself. His attempts to get out of the way kept it from being a serious or fatal wound but he still had a nice slice down his left arm and torso to show for his efforts.

The pain of the wound wasn't enough to make him loose consciousness but it still drove him to one knee, Bonnie apparently hadn't seen what had happened and kept running. Unfortunately for her it separated her from Ron at the same time as the Drakanadian cavalry caught up to her. As they surrounded her she stopped in shock and looked back finally seeing him struggling to his feet. General Killigan reached down and seized her by the arm and something inside Ron snapped. Memories of Yori on that cliff flashed before his eyes and the desire to prevent that from happening to anyone else he was protecting filled his entire being. As though it had a will of its own his Mystical Monkey Power tapped into that desire and it surged through him like never before, only this wasn't the Mystical Monkey Power he was used to, it felt darker and more sinister. The result though was undeniable, all the Drakanadians around Bonnie locked up as though something were holding them and then without any warning they simply dropped off their horses and fell to the ground dead.

The other Drakanadian soldiers took one look at what he had done and as fast as they could started running away from him, Ron staggered towards Bonnie and grabbed her as they ran towards the mountains. Curiosity ran rampant over her face but Bonnie saw the confusion in his own face and kept silent until they finally stopped at the base of the mountains and even then she didn't ask about what he had done.

"Alright," she breathed heavily, "we've gone as east as we can, let's turn south and make as much distance as we can before we have to stop and rest."

"No," Ron shook his head wearily, "that plan isn't going to work anymore, both of our descriptions are going to race ahead of us and I don't think I could get myself back through their lines much less both of us."

"So then what's your great plan," Bonnie stood with her hands on her hips, "you're hurt and it's not like we have another way to go."

"I'm fine," Ron stood up straight, "I managed to dodge almost all the blow and it's barely a cut. And there is another way, the Rockwall Mountains aren't impassable, just really really hard. If you know what you're doing though and you've got a small enough party you can get through, that's exactly what we're going to do."

"That's crazy," Bonnie's voice started to rise, "we'll never make it through alive."

"I can't stop you from going south I suppose," Ron hoisted both their bags onto his shoulder, "but one I have all your stuff, two you'll never make it anywhere without my help, and three and most importantly I'm going through the mountains."

Ron couldn't hear exactly what Bonnie said, but he was sure it was less than flattering and he was also sure she was following him as he started climbing into the mountains.

AN: Rounded out the main cast and killed off a few people, sounds like a good chapter to me. Also a really long chapter, about half again as long as most other ones but you know this one was an important one. I'm sorry to announce there will be no new chapter next week, some family stuff will keep me way too busy to write as much as I need to get anything done. However if you stick with me I'll catch you up on everyone else when I come back. Ciao all and remember Deathly Hallows Saturday.


	9. Useless

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Even after a break I still don't own Kim Possible

Chapter Eight: Useless

please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIII, subject Magic-

Anyone looking in the dictionary of the Royal Archives would see the following definition of magic, "Magic (noun): The art of producing effects or controlling events through the use of spells, charms, and rituals." This however is somewhat of a misnomer, in the widest sense of the word this standard definition is accurate and to allow for maximum accessibility of knowledge this is what is placed in general dictionaries. A more specific definition suitable for this entry requires us to consider the issue more in-depth. Magic as we understand it does not produce effects in the way the wider definition would seem to suggest, smoke and explosions are not only the purview of street performers but more often than not are a mark of incompetence. Real magic instead produces effects by altering natural properties, persons capable of Healing Magic use their powers to speed up and enhance the subject's natural healing. Other types of magic act in much the same way, a good rule of thumb for those seeking to understand magic is that magic cannot violate natural laws. Controlling events is a slightly more accurate definition but this must be presented with the caveat that more often than not it is the user of the magic who is controlling events rather than the magic itself. Persons possessing Mystical Monkey Power can use their powers to increase slightly their physical prowess, allowing them to perform great feats of combat and seemingly control events.

One thing we must note is the rarity of magic, research indicates that the ability to use any type of magic will occur naturally in at most two percent of the population. This two percent is roughly evenly distributed between Healing Magic, Mystical Monkey Power, and Kinetic Magic, some other forms of magic have been observed and reported but these are so rare as to be considered anomalies within an anomaly. The reason there are so few magic users in proportion to the general population, the actual number is far below two percent, is that of those two percent perhaps half will ever manifest any magical abilities, the other half never find themselves in any sort of circumstances where their magic might come out. Of that one percent of the population who has even one occurrence, fully two thirds of them will pass it off as a fluke and never have any further relationship with their abilities. Half of the remaining third will make some limited use of their abilities but never fully recognize them for what they are and so will remain limited in what they can do. This leaves one sixth of one percent who will actively seek to explore their magical talents, given the secrecy and dilute nature of organizations who might teach them we believe that only ten percent of these people will encounter others who can teach them the depths of their powers. Exact numbers are therefore fluid and uncertain but we can conclude with reasonable certainty that they are very small.

**-Southern Rockwall Kingdom-**

Captain Josh Mankey slowly dismounted his horse, slowly because his legs really hurt after that Drakanadian pikeman had managed to punch a small hole in his armor and put the tip of his pike about half an inch into Josh's leg. And then there was that hurt where his horse had fallen and he had been sent rolling, fortunately he and the horse had come out of it fairly unscathed but that didn't stop the multitude of bruises that now pained him. He could have gone on and on about the number of small cuts he'd gotten at various points during the day but that would have taken time he didn't have to think about all of those. He was in considerably better shape than the poor men being carried by on stretchers though. At best they would likely be stuck in a hospital tent for a week or more and far too many of them would go home missing an arm or a leg or worse yet never go home again.

There was nothing he could do about that though, just one of many things outside of his power to affect in the slightest. Just after he'd gotten back to the front a whole team of bards had shown up to compose an epic tale of his deeds. Josh had suffered through the smallest of his deeds being turned into some heroic quest, at the rate they were going he'd soon see standing in line for breakfast show up as some great crusade for justice and freedom. He was fairly sure the soldiers under his command were plain having fun with their answers, they knew darn well that he wasn't all he was made out to be and yet every time they got to rotate back from the trenches they seemed to top themselves in the deeds they could make up. And still he got the credit for nearly everything, he'd long ago learned that trying to outright deny doing anything would just be spun as modesty. The best he could do was try to spread that credit out as much as possible by saying that he couldn't have done everything on his own and his men had been critical to his success. And even when that worked it was always billed as 'Josh Mankey and…' but Josh had learned that settling for what he could get was about the best result he was going to be able to get away with.

He walked into his tent and making sure to not hit any sore spots took off his armor and chain mail before walking to his desk to check on the mail that had accumulated in the week they'd been in the trenches. It was mostly letters from people who bought into the stories about his being some great hero, by and large they wanted to shout his praises or encourage him to go out and single handedly defeat the Drakanadian army and end the war. One letter however caught his attention and caused his blood to drain out of his face into his feet, his parents had decided to write him. Before the last few days he would have looked forward to a letter from his parents, he looked up to them and they'd done the best they could with him. That was before he'd gotten the news that more than a few people thought that his supposed heroics meant he should court Princess Kim. If his parents got word of that they would all but move to Middleton to make the case that he and the Princess would make the perfect royal couple.

Like he'd told Ron he didn't have anything against Princess Kim, he just didn't know her and he wasn't a great fan of arranged marriages. And if his parents had their way he and the Princess would be married so fast it might as well have been an arranged marriage. Hands shaking he picked up a small knife and sliced through the seal on the envelope. Holding it upside down and gently shaking his parents letter fell out onto the table and partly unfolded itself. The trembling in his hands grew even worse as he slowly flattened the paper and began to read what his parents had written. Quickly he realized that his parents hadn't heard anything from anyone who thought he should court Princess Kim. However they had heard about his supposed heroics and as impressed as they were they wanted to know how he was going to 'use his newfound fame to find a respectable woman and give them some grand-children already.' Josh couldn't for the life of him imagine why his parents were so obsessed with finding him a wife, it wasn't like they were on their deathbeds and he wasn't in any danger of growing old stuck single.

Unfortunately for all that this letter didn't have anything in it he was too terribly afraid of it was nearly two weeks old. For all Josh knew his parents could be in a carriage to Middleton as he was reading their letter and another one could well be on the way saying they'd already decided on the date he was going to be marrying Princess Kim. From what he'd learned about the Princess she would likely take the news even worse than he would, and that was saying something as the only fights he'd ever had with his parents were over this exact topic. His best, and really only, hope to avoid his parents arranging a marriage was to be right thinking that Princess Kim's father would allow her considerable say in the matter. Knowing his luck though that wasn't likely, everything had gone right at the wrong time for him since this war started and it was foolish to think when he really needed it his luck would turn around.

"Captain Mankey?" A voice interrupted his increasingly morose inner monologue

"Yes," Josh turned to see his second in command, Lieutenant Ned, "what is it?"

"Two things sir," Ned stepped into the command tent, "the first thing is that a number of bards and message runners are asking to talk with you. I think they want to hear you talk about what you did up in the trenches since the last time they got any news."

"Haven't the men already had their turns spinning taller and taller tales about me?" Josh sighed.

"Yes sir," Ned answered, "But I think these people want to hear it from your mouth, it makes the story more popular."

"Not anymore true though," Josh grumbled, "can we just fend them off like always, say I'm planning our next move or something like that. Or maybe we should start saying I want the men under my command to do it so they can meet some real heroes, people in the trenches who don't get any recognition for it."

"We'll try sir," Ned jotted something down on a piece of paper, "sooner or later though you're going to have to go out there and lie to them some more."

"I'm aiming for later, much later," Josh wryly pointed out, "now you said there was something else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I don't think I need to do much talking sir," Ned replied, "a messenger from the palace found me earlier today when I was setting up the camp with the advance party. He gave me a message with the royal seal and told me to give it to you."

"Wait a bit would you," Josh said as he took the letter, "if it's short I'll draft a response and have you run it out to our messengers so they can get our reply back as soon as possible."

Josh again used his knife to open the seal on the rolled up paper and with considerably steadier hands he unrolled it and began to read.

"Well congratulations Lieutenant," Josh stood up and extended his hand after he finished reading, "or should I say Captain?"

"Sir?" Ned asked.

"You've got a new job," Josh said, "mine in fact. And since a Lieutenant is not a high enough rank for such a command the General Staff has seen fit to take care of that by promoting you."

"But what's happening to you sir?" Ned had a slight air of disbelief around him.

"As much as I want to stop climbing the military ladder it seems I haven't yet," Josh rolled up the letter again and put it down on the table, "I've been promoted to Major and recalled to Middleton for reassignment. I leave tomorrow morning."

As Ned left to start spreading the word, Josh couldn't help thinking that he was still stuck in the right place at the wrong time.

**-Middleton-**

Kim Possible was not a happy princess. There was nothing wrong with her clothes, nothing was wrong with her hair, and there weren't any rodents around. Not that if any of those things were happening she would particularly care, clothes and hair were a minimal concern to her most of the time and she was perfectly capable of dealing with small rodents just fine on her own. Many a spell of naked mole rat sitting had proven that, she was glad that Ron had chosen to leave Rufus at Yamanouchi this time around rather than leaving his naked mole rat with her. Kim Possible was many things but shallow was not on that list. Kim was not a happy princess for one single reason, she was bored out of her mind.

She didn't much care that the war had more or less done the ball and gala season in and there wasn't likely to be another one for the foreseeable future. Her ladies-in-waiting were another story, she spent the better part of her day ready to strangle the simpering and giggling girls as she was forced to listen to them wail and moan about not being able to wear some gown or brag about how many men trailed after them at each opportunity. Well almost all of them, to her great relief one of them, a tall blonde named Justine Flanner, cared about as little as she did. Justine was a real math nut and considered large scale social events, that didn't have to do with math of course, a waste of her time. Kim didn't necessarily consider balls a waste of time, she appreciated that useful things could and did happen at the events but she hated having to put up with all the people who wanted to suck up to her or plead some hopeless idea.

"Excuse me Princess Kim," Kim looked up to see none other than Justine Flanner, "a word?"

"Sure," Kim motioned for her to walk into her study, "what's the sitch?"

"The other girls would like for you to sponsor a gala," Justine sighed, "I tried to convince them that it was a stupid idea in the first place and that you'd never agree to go along with it. But they didn't want to listen so I said I'd go ask you so when I came back with a no it would be from you."

"Well you can tell them no from me," Kim arched an eyebrow, "now did you really want to come ask me that or did you just want to get away from them for awhile?"

"A bit of both actually," Justine admitted, "They've been bugging me to ask you and I wanted to get a no from you just to shut them up. But I did and do want to get away from them, they go on and on all day long giggling about dresses this and men that."

"Tell me about it," Kim buried her face in her hands, "I don't even have to put up with it all day and I'm ready to knock some heads by the end of it. If you want to stuff some of the fluffy pillows in your lounge down their mouths to keep them from talking I promise I'll look the other way, after I watch you do it so I can cheer you on."

"Please tell me you aren't serious your highness," Justine said with some trepidation, "if you are I might go right back to that room and take you up on your offer."

Kim paused for almost a whole minute in thought, "Nah, I guess you shouldn't. It'd be fun and all but in the long run it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Make sure they know that my no to their silly little ball means any balls in the future and that if they press the matter I'll come shove those pillows myself."

"With pleasure," Justine had a smile on her face as she walked to the door, "thank you Princess."

After Justine left Kim was once again stuck by herself, whenever Ron was around she could always count on his company if no one else's, but he had been away on long missions for so long between his fateful mission with Yori and then rescuing Princess Bonnie that Kim was getting lonely without him around. Of course she wasn't alone, even with a war on there were still lots of people around the palace but aside from her family and Justine she really didn't know any of them. And even them she didn't connect with like she did Ron, in retrospect she would have been quite willing to naked mole rat sit Rufus just to have a small, in physical size at least, part of her best friend with her.

Finally her boredom reached a point where if she didn't get up and do something, _anything_, she would explode. Walking out of her study she decided to go find her parents, if there was anyone who could come up with something she could do to keep herself occupied it would be one of them. Not quite storming along she made her way down the corridors of the palace, past the multitudes of people who stopped to bow or curtsey briefly as she passed by, eventually reaching her parents private study.

"Mom, Dad?" Kim poked her head through the door.

"Kimmie cub," her dad looked up from his desk, "what brings you here."

"Not much," Kim stepped into the room, "where's mom?"

"Down at the hospital," her dad sighed, "she thinks that since she can help she should and as much as I hate to admit it we do need all the doctors we can get helping out."

"Yeah," Kim grimaced, "I really wish she didn't have to do that."

"We all do," her dad put the paper he was reading down on his desk, "now why don't you tell me what's going on with you."

"It's nothing important," Kim said, "I'm just…"

"Bored out of your mind?" Her dad filled in the blank.

"Yeah," Kim started thinking out loud, "My whole life I've been raised to do everything I can and now I'm stuck here when I should be doing everything I can to help save the Three Kingdoms."

"Well I just might have something," her dad smiled, "I've been trying to decide which of the many generals and admirals around here I should send to Upperton to oversee our buildup there to try and take this war to Drakanada. If you feel up to it I think you'd be the best choice to send, there's one person on the way from our lines in the Rockwall Kingdom I'd like to send with you but that wouldn't mean more than a few days delay."

"That sounds great," Kim said in mild amazement, "is there anything I need to read up on before I go?"

"I'll make sure it gets sent to you tonight," her dad replied, "before you go though there's someone I want you to meet, he's going to be filling the opening in your bodyguard. He's supposed to be meeting me right now about his duties but I see no reason he can't meet you."

The door opened and a young man a few inches taller than Kim with brown hair walked in and bowed quickly as he saw her. "An honor your highness, my name is Eric and I pledge to look after you with my life if necessary."

AN: Bad news I spilled orange juice on my laptop, good news me and a hairdryer showed that orange juice who's boss. So I know I'm evil to leave poor Tara in limbo another chapter, believe me I do know what happens to her. But I've got to keep Kim and Josh's plot threads moving along so you'll just have to wait for next Friday to find out what happens to Tara. Which you know, you should come back to find out what happens.


	10. Trials and Tribulations

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: After I go through law school I'll be able to take over Kim Possible, check back with me in three years.

Chapter Nine: Trials and Tribulations

please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. Please be aware that all information presented about Drakanadian geology and geography is either antiquated having crossed the Rockwall Mountains before the First Invasion. Or lacks proper study being the observations of sailors and rare over-land travelers since.

all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, General World History, Volume VII, subject Geography-

Shortly after explorers circumnavigated the continent comprising the known world the cartographer Professor Allenford described the shape of our continent on their early maps as 'a cross between a peanut and an hourglass.' Cartographers since have called this description somewhat of an over simplification, the continent does narrow visibly at the middle and the two 'bulges' at the top and bottom are uneven but to describe an entire continent as such shows the lack of accurate map making skills present before the First Invasion.

The southern portion of the continent is best described as a superb climate for agriculture, while there are few navigable rivers in the Three Kingdoms a network of small rivers distributes waters from snowmelt flowing down from the Rockwall Mountains and limits the need for large scale irrigation. The southern and eastern portions of the Three Kingdoms are primarily plains that form the breadbasket for the rest of the country. The capital city of Middleton sits at the northern edges of these plains and serves as a great market center distributing the food to the rest of the realm. Upperton is the largest port in the world and sits on the eastern coast of the Three Kingdoms, great fleets of fishing ships set out to reap the ocean's bounty under the protection of the Royal Navy sailing from its home port. The western portion of the Three Kingdoms is more rugged than the other parts, rocky hills rise from the ocean and populations are generally sparse, however large deposits of rare and useful ores have been found and the region is dotted with mines. The northern portion of the Three Kingdoms is also hillier than the south and east, rivers flowing through here however make the hills ideal for large scale ranching and the forests covering large parts of the region form the basis of a thriving timber industry. The city of Lowerton sits at the southern ends of the passes through the Rockwall Mountains and serves as a major military outpost as well as industrial center.

North of the Rockwall Mountains is the Drakanadian Empire, little is known of this realm and most of what we do know is over five centuries old. What we do know for certain is that most of the water draining from the Rockwall Mountains drains into the ocean much faster than it does to the south. This means that by and large crop yields are smaller in Drakanada and this has historically been one of the key factors of the greater population of the Three Kingdoms. What water does not drain immediately into the ocean seems to collect in large marshlands near the center of Drakanada, what if any uses the Drakanadians have found for these marshes remains unknown. The Drakanadian city of Shegoton lies towards the north of Drakanada and sits on top of several hills providing it excellent defensive positioning. At present the location of the major Drakanadian port or ports remains unknown, no large forests have yet been found that would provide the lumber necessary for the Drakanadian fleet and Shegoton is too far inland to serve as a port. We believe there is much more to the geography and geology of Drakanada but opportunities to increase our knowledge are rare and routes traveled through and around Drakanada vary little as they have proven safe and the risks of deviating are too great.

**-Rockwall Mountains-**

Ron didn't know whether he should laugh till he cried or just skip straight to the crying. Ideally he wanted to talk to whatever or whoever was running the universe and lodge some serious comments and concerns. But that wasn't likely to be happening any time soon, hence the settling for laughing or crying. The reason for his wanting to laugh or cry was quite simple, he was stuck in the Rockwall Mountains with Princess Bonnie. Laughing or crying being Ron's normal choice of reactions when faced with a situation that was stressful but not necessarily dangerous. Certainly there was plenty of potential danger going through the Rockwall Mountains under any circumstances and potentially having soldiers following them added plenty of danger. But it would be quite easy to give any pursuers the slip in the mountains and Ron was covering their tracks quite well, and even if they argued almost non-stop Bonnie did listen to him about things it was obvious he knew better than her. The difficulty Ron had was convincing her that he knew more about something than she did, Bonnie had quite a high opinion of her smarts and had enough actual smarts to justify a fair amount of pride, though certainly not her outright arrogance.

As near as he could tell they were a little less than halfway to the Yamanouchi school, he hoped they could stop and rest a few days there since even though he knew the southern parts of the Rockwall Mountains quite well they were some of the most dangerous slopes he knew of. Bonnie though seemed rather averse to the idea of sleeping, stopping, or anything that might slow them down. And every chance she got her royal highness took the opportunity to complain that they should turn back into the Rockwall Kingdom and try to cut right through two opposing armies, an entire one of which wanted nothing more than to find them and kill them. Ron had pointed this out, along with the fact that he had no hope of getting through the Drakanadian army alone, much less with her. He may also however have gone on to say that was in no small part due to the fact that she refused to shut up about what she wanted everyone else to do. And this might have led to her going on a half hour tirade at him before her current state of sulky silence at a distance that was as far as she could get from him and still have him able to help her climb anything she couldn't get over herself.

Although she was actually quite a good climber as it turned out, he wasn't about to ask her and risk another fight but Ron suspected that Bonnie was a far more worldly and independent person than her royal upbringing might suspect. In that one respect she was rather like his best friend but he was glad she didn't have much anything in common with Kim, he couldn't imagine Kim being the stuck up prissy know it all that Bonnie was. His only hope was that he could last the two weeks, now thirteen days, it would take them to get to Middleton without anything too drastic happening. It wouldn't do to save her from the Drakanadians only to ditch her off in the Rockwall Mountains because he couldn't stand her company.

Bonnie didn't know whether she should laugh till she cried or just skip straight to the crying. Ideally she wanted to talk to whatever or whoever was running the universe and lodge some serious comments and complaints. But that wasn't likely to be happening any time soon, hence the settling or laughing or crying. The reason for her wanting to laugh or cry was quite simple, this whole thing of being 'rescued' by Ron Stoppable wasn't actually a bad dream and she really was stuck walking through the back end of nowhere rather than doing something useful like driving the Drakanadians out of her kingdom. Laughing or crying was just the only choice she could really make at this point, Stoppable was supposed to be one of the best the Three Kingdoms had to offer if not the best. And if that was true she could scarcely believe that the Drakanadian army was still in the southern part of her realm and not camped outside the walls of Middleton itself. Of the many problems she had with her traveling companion one stood out over all the others, he had to constantly disagree with her. She wasn't her sisters and if she was wrong she wanted to be told so but Stoppable seemed determined to argue with her for the sake of arguing and it was getting tiresome to her.

To top it off she had absolutely no idea where they were or where they were going beyond a supposed end destination of Middleton. Stoppable kept mentioning some place called 'yamnochi' or some odd word she wasn't at all familiar with. It was supposed to be about halfway on their trip and Ron wanted to stop and rest for a few days before starting on the back half of their trip which he said would be considerably harder than what they were going through right now. Bonnie was somewhat torn on stopping at this yam-whatever place. On the one hand she knew she was absolutely exhausted and she needed to stop and regain her strength for the rest of the journey, plus a few hot meals would probably do her a world of good. On the other hand though her drive to do whatever she could to help her people meant that every second she spent not working or going as hard as she could felt like she was failing them. And then there were the nightmares, she wasn't even in the city when her parents were killed and she'd heard nothing of how it happened but that didn't stop her mind from coming up with any number of terrifying and gruesome ways they might have died. Or for that matter from wondering what might be happening to her best friend at that very moment.

She could at least put her dreams aside for as long as she could keep climbing, putting one foot and occasionally one hand in front of the other took all her concentration and she didn't have time to think about her parents, her best friend, or what her sisters might be doing to the kingdom and its people. As much as she hated to admit it Stoppable did know his way through and around these mountains, and even when he didn't know something he figured it out remarkably quickly. Something that reminded her of Tara and how she always figured out whatever problem came her way even if she didn't know the answer right off. Fortunately the two didn't have much else in common, she hated the possibility that she might have to think of Tara as a near useless, bull headed… man. Her only hope was that once she got to Middleton she could find someone competent to handle her problem and never speak to Stoppable again.

"Do we really have to stop?" Ron turned his head with a soft sigh as Bonnie started complaining again, "there's a full moon out tonight and we can still cover a lot more ground tonight."

"For your information we do have to stop," Ron let their bags drop to the ground, "you ought to know well enough by now that you can't see as well by moonlight as you think you can. And we should have stopped hours ago, not just because it's dark out here but we're both so tired we can barely stand. And I don't know about you but I'm actually determined to get back to Middleton in one piece."

"Oh that's rich," Bonnie crossed her arms and glared at him, "I might believe that a little more if you were actually heading anywhere we need to be and not dragging me on a tour of the entire Rockwall Mountains!"

"Well excuse me _your highness_," Ron returned her glare, "I thought you might actually want to get to Middleton alive and not fall into some bottomless pit in these mountains or stumble onto the Drakanadian army and find out what they'd like to do with you."

"I'd like to get to Middleton before the Drakanadians do," Bonnie shouted, "but if you're so determined to take your merry time then fine! We'll stop here for tonight but when we get to wherever you're taking us and the war's already over it's going to be all your fault!"

Ron didn't reply to her last jab verbally, instead he reached into his pack and threw her a blanket. Bonnie caught the blanket, unfolded it, and after clearing a little bit of smooth ground lay down with a huff and curled up in the blanket. Ron grabbed his own blanket out and closed up the pack but didn't curl up and go to sleep immediately. Instead he walked around the small patch of flat ground they'd stopped on, he couldn't see anyone in the valleys or on the peaks nearest to them. As far as he knew he and Bonnie might be the first people to ever come through here, as they got closer to Yamanouchi they would hopefully start finding trails they could use to speed up their progress.

Ron started walking back to their small camp to go to sleep when he heard a soft noise, he crept around looking for the source of the noise. It wasn't until he saw Bonnie's shoulder moving unevenly under her blanket that he walked over to her and saw tears trickling down her face. He walked in to ask her what was wrong but as he got near he saw that she was already asleep. Ron silently walked back to where he meant to sleep and sat down, it hadn't occurred to him that for all that had happened to him since this war started even more had happened to Bonnie. He had lost Yori but he knew that Kim and everyone else he cared about were safe. Bonnie's parents were dead, her sisters wanted to kill her, and her best friend was probably dead or being tortured at that very moment. He hadn't seen her shed one tear while awake, she was bottling it all up and only when she slept and her guard was down could all the pain she was holding in come out. And to make him feel even worse he knew that he was doing his fair share to keep her mood plenty sour.

He looked over at her once more and saw a shudder that he was pretty sure was from the cold, he walked over and put his blanket on top of her before walking back over to the packs and resting against them. He didn't have to be her friend or anything, but Ron decided that at least he could be one less problem Bonnie had to deal with.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

Tara had decided over the last few days that she in-fact still wanted to be alive. Oh she was still entirely prepared to die, in her position it could happen at any time and in any number of ways. But having come face to face with death and walked away she realized that for how terrible Connie and Lonnie were she still very much enjoyed being alive. She had been in the small cell where she was waiting for Bonnie to be dragged back before she was supposed to be executed when Connie and Lonnie came storming down into the dungeon obviously as angry as they'd ever been about anything. And for once their anger wasn't directed at each other, it turned out that someone had rescued Bonnie out from under their noses and had killed the general in command of the mission. Still quite convinced that she was about to die Tara hadn't bothered to hide her mirth and outright pleasure at their misfortune.

They had come quite close to killing her right there but they'd decided to keep her alive in the end. However Tara had mouthed off at them quite good and they were determined to get their revenge on her directly and not just take out their hatred of Bonnie on the closest thing they could get to. That night her streak of managing to slip by Connie and Lonnie's perverse pleasures had been broken in the worse kind of way, she had been thrown onto a bed and a line of Drakanadian soldiers had begun marching in. The only thing that had gone even remotely in her favor was that after about an hour or so she had gone unconscious and the rest of the night was with her only in the pain she still felt as the aftermath of what those bastards had done to her.

Since then she'd been worked harder than ever, she hadn't slept in thirty six hours and she was stuck standing behind Connie and Lonnie as they plotted with the Drakanadian generals about how best to drive the Allies out of their foothold in the Rockwall Kingdom and then conquer the Three Kingdoms itself. Tara was glad she was still alive if for no other reason than she was still able to overhear things like this and pass the Drakanadians plans along to their enemies. If she wasn't put through a repeat of the night she escaped execution Tara was going to have quite a report to write after this meeting. The Drakanadian emperor himself was sitting at the head of the table and had asked about how a plan to invade the Three Kingdoms without having to win in the Rockwall Kingdom first.

AN: If you haven't noticed by now, only one update this week. Between work and getting ready for law school the time to work on two stories full tilt just isn't there anymore. The almighty quarter dictated that this be the story to get updated this week so here it is. Obviously the brunt of this chapter was devoted to Ron and Bonnie, expect them to have more appearances than the other characters for awhile while I try to catch everyone up on Bonnie. And now you know that Tara is at least alive, if worse off than before, but just to keep you in suspense I kept her segment purposefully short. Ciao till next time all.


	11. Starting Over

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Someday I will own Kim Possible, today however is not that day.

Chapter Ten: Starting Over

please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIII, subject Magic-

Concerning general attitudes about magic: By and large people have little to no contact with magic in their day-to-day lives and most people of the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom will never have any experience with magic. Nevertheless it is something that almost any person on the street has an opinion about, whether or not these opinions are founded in any sort of scientific knowledge or simple superstition is open to debate. Generally these opinions are positive, most people in the Three Kingdoms and Rockwall Kingdom live lives that are if not materially wealthy at least secured of basic needs the majority of the time. Thus they are inclined to see magic as something that happens to a small portion of the population and for over ninety nine percent of the population something that never affects them directly. For the one percent who are exposed to magic their opinions tend to be based in no small part around the effects of the magic they witnessed, a grain silo being destroyed by Mystical Monkey Power run amok tends to create a negative perception while Healing Magic closing a mortal wound creates a more positive perception.

There are of course times in history when the general perception of magic takes a significant turn for the worse. After the First Invasion when famine seemed endemic and many people had witnessed firsthand the destruction magic was and is capable of rendering was one of these times. Given their small numbers few magic users were actually affected by the hysteria but in many villages any misfortune was attributed to magic and people who were unpopular or suspected of foul deeds were rounded up and tried. Often times these trials were simply for show, in no small amount of cases the trials were conducted at the site where the execution was to take place following the trial. Following this episode there have since been no widespread episodes of active violence against magic users. Most modern instances are of one village acting rashly or in most cases family members who are jealous of their relatives new found powers deciding to act on their anger.

**-Rockwall Mountains-**

For the first time in a long while, perhaps since before her parents were killed, Bonnie stopped where she was to simply appreciate the moment. Of course perched on a steep mountainside waiting for her climbing partner to find a way up it was somewhat hard not to stop. The appreciating the moment thing was something she was doing to make the best out of her situation. And really given the place they were it was almost equally hard to not be awestruck by the environment. Snowcapped peaks glittered in the sun as far as her eye could see, below timberline an ocean of green forest seemed to run right up to where the air became too thin and the mountains became jagged spires of rock reaching for the heavens.

She was tempted to ask Ron if he knew how high the tallest mountain in the range was but for what she'd seen it wouldn't surprise her if no one knew which of these mountains was indeed the tallest. And she didn't want to put any more strain than was necessary on the fragile truce that had seemingly come into being between them without a word spoken by either side. Surprisingly enough it was a truce that had worked out quite well, it let both of them concentrate as much as any two people with the emotional baggage they were carrying could on climbing the mountains. Having lived her whole life in the middle of the Rockwall Mountains Bonnie had thought that she knew the mountains quite well and was as equipped as anyone with the know-how to survive a trek through them. The past week and a half however had proven her to be very much wrong. Once they got past about a day or two into the mountains all signs of human inhabitants vanished and they were utterly on their own to find food, water, shelter, and a path to anywhere. And the mountains themselves became bigger, the forest became denser, and Bonnie could tell they were generally moving up by the gradually thinning air.

The biggest shock of the trip had finally been meeting one of the elusive nomadic groups that lived in the high pastures of the mountains; the experience of seeing one of the high pastures was in and of itself yet another shock to the princess. What had really gotten her about the whole thing was that when they had been shown to the chief of the group he had not only recognized who Bonnie was but instead of being resentful about how big brother the Rockwall Kingdom often seemed to the nomads the entire tribe had grieved for what had happened to her and her people. Then the second big shock had come, she had completely expected Ron to take the opportunity to interrupt her needed grieving but all she'd seen of him was his back as he slipped out of the large tent at the beginning of the night. Where he'd gone and what he'd done remained a total mystery to her. At the time she'd had other things higher on her priority list but after several days traveling with the tribe in the general direction of where they needed to go and the last few back on their own it had started to gnaw at her and she wanted answers.

She was brought out of her reverie by Ron's increasingly loud voice, "Bonnie? Bonnie!"

"What," she half grumbled up at him.

"You doing okay?" He asked with a mixture of mirth and some actual concern, "air not getting too thin for you?"

"No, I'm fine." She said with just enough snark to get under his skin, something she did enjoy, "I was just standing there long enough waiting for you that I actually started to drift off."

She saw Ron open his mouth and then close it as he collected himself and paused to choose his words very carefully. Bonnie was about to laugh at him when she realized she was about to blow right past their little truce, forcing her mouth to remain shut she waited for whatever Ron would say next."

"Drifted off how," he said at last, "drifted off like you were just thinking and totally ignoring the world or drifted off like you were going to sleep?"

"Well this rock face is so comfortable…" Bonnie smiled in an attempt to make a little joke. When she saw that had totally failed she pursed her lips and spoke again, "I was just thinking, why are you so worried about me all of a sudden anyways?"

"Because princess," Ron helped her scramble up the last bit of the ledge they were climbing, "I got my orders straight from Kim's dad to get you back to Middleton safe. I've never let him down before and I'm not about to start by letting you get killed. Now what were you even thinking about that had you so wrapped up in your own little world?"

"I was just thinking about that tribe we ran into a few days back," Bonnie didn't want to lie but she didn't want to tell the whole truth either, "just where did you disappear to all those times I saw you slipping out of the tent?"

"Nowhere in particular," Ron's voice said plainly he didn't want to discuss the matter any further but Bonnie ignored that.

"Oh come on," she made her best attempt to pry without nettling him, "you know all sorts of things about me and I barely know anything about you beyond your name and what you're supposed to be doing here. Won't you answer even a few questions about yourself?"

"Not a one," his response was short and to the point.

"You already have though," Bonnie stopped trying to not nettle him, "you told me why you were worried about me."

"That's different," Ron said over his shoulder, "you already knew that so I didn't actually tell you anything you didn't already know."

"Oh yes you did," he could see a smile grow on Bonnie's face, "I'm going to find out who this Kim is and who her dad is."

Ron let out a sigh, she was not giving up and it was starting to get on his nerves. He was a bit surprised that she hadn't already pieced together who Kim was and who her dad would have to be to be ordering him around but from Kim he knew that Bonnie hadn't been to the Three Kingdoms in a long time so she could be forgiven for forgetting a few things given the circumstances.

"Let's stop here and eat," Ron needed a break from the travel or Bonnie and since he couldn't ditch Bonnie he'd settle for not walking for awhile.

Bonnie looked like she wanted to keep going for awhile but she limited her complaints to a grimace and a sulky huff as she let her pack drop off her shoulders onto the ground. Ron let his own pack come to rest on the ground with no small bit of relief; the thing was heavy enough on its own and after carrying it for half a day with no breaks he was beginning to think the thing was becoming permanently attached to his shoulders.

Lunch went a surprising way towards restoring Ron's spirits. As a parting gift the nomads they'd come across had given them enough meat to last all the way to Yamanouchi, it might not have seemed like much but when most of the rest of their diet consisted of nuts and berries such a small luxury became great indeed. Even Bonnie's spirits seemed to be lifted by the meal, as much as she wanted to get to Middleton she still got hungry and tired and Ron suspected she was pushing herself even more than he was to keep up their pace. The silence of lunch also went a ways towards making Ron feel better, despite whatever truce passed between him and Bonnie they could still argue if they weren't careful. Concentrating on eating and enjoying the food left no time for either of them to get the other even a little riled up beyond their normal state of plain not getting along.

But as good as lunch was it was all to brief since they were in a hurry and at altitude their appetites weren't what they would be a few thousand feet down. It was probably due to fatigue or that he had his mind on any number of other things but somehow Ron forgot to pick up their bags with his good arm. And as distracted and fatigued as Bonnie was there was no way she could miss the hiss of pain that left his mouth, much less when he dropped their bags to grab at his injury.

"What the," she jumped up at the noise, "what did you do to yourself?"

"Nothing," he grit his teeth, "I think I just pinched a nerve having this pack on my shoulders for so long every day. Give me a minute or two to work it lose and I'll be fine."

"Nice try," Bonnie walked up to him with her hands on her hips, "I'm willing to bet that Duff Killigan guy got you a lot better than you want to admit. Now let me take a look at it."

"I'm fine," Ron tried to ignore the pain but failed miserably, "he didn't get me badly at all."

Bonnie didn't respond to him verbally, instead she fixed him with a glare that Kim would have been proud of on her best day. He sulked and resisted for awhile but he was only human and in short order he was biting back several curses as he peeled his shirt off. Getting his first good look at the wound since he got it Ron was forced to conclude that perhaps he'd dodged a little less of that hit than he thought and would liked to have.

"This is what you call not getting hit badly at all?!" Bonnie gaped at the cut running from the top of his shoulder down to the middle of his ribs, "You'd probably be dead if he actually got you."

"Nah, I'm a big tough guy." Ron half smiled half grimaced, "take more than a little cut like this to put me down for the count."

"You are such a… a… man!" Bonnie near screamed in aggravation, "Would you like me to list off the ways that thing could kill you or should I just demonstrate?"

"I'll settle for a list," Ron said weekly, "and why would you even know the many ways this little flesh wound could kill me?"

Bonnie sat down next to him with a huff, "I'm the third daughter you don't think I ever lived a day in my life thinking I was going to do anything even remotely approaching governing did you?"

"Actually yeah," Ron shrugged his good shoulder.

"Not with my sisters ahead of me," Bonnie crossed her arms and shot an angry glare off into the distance, "I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was young. And even if I'm the third daughter I'm still a princess so I got the best tutors in the Rockwall Kingdom and the Three Kingdoms. If you haven't gotten the point by now I'm very good at what I do, so sit there and let me take a look."

"Oh no," Ron scooted away from her, "how do I even know you're telling the truth? I mean why did you even decide you want to be a doctor?"

"You don't get to know that," Bonnie gave him a very flat look, "only three other people besides me ever got to know that and I know at least two of them are dead. Now sit still and let me take care of that."

Ron grumbled but sat still as Bonnie rummaged in her pack to find a small leather bag, she opened it up and using various instruments he had seen Kim's mom use on occasion poked and prodded at his wound. Her touch was surprisingly gentle and he quickly realized that she wasn't making any exaggeration when she said how good she was.

She looked around in the wound for several minutes before leaning back and looking him in the eye, "I'm actually impressed with you, this wound is infected and the whole thing is large enough that you should be unconscious, feverish, and near delusional. The good news for you is that I can fix this up like it never even happened, just don't get freaked out at what I'm about to do."

Before Ron had time to ask any questions Bonnie leaned over his wound and put her hands over it so they were almost but not quite touching his skin. A soft white glow started emanating from the bottom of her hands and all of a sudden Ron's wound began to feel very warm. But not an unpleasant warm, it was the kind of warm you got from lying outside on a perfect spring day or from huddling under thick blankets when it was freezing outside. The more amazing thing was that as the warmth traveled up and down the wound the skin around it seemed to get less red and the cut itself seemed to be getting smaller and shallower. After about thirty seconds he was absolutely sure that the cut had shrunk as much as it would in a week of normal healing. A full minute later the cut was completely gone and to Ron's utter astonishment there wasn't a trace of a scar or any residual soreness.

"Wow," Ron breathed in amazement, "what was…"

"Healing Magic," Bonnie scooted back and huddled in on herself, "I can speed up the body's natural healing and make it more efficient so there aren't any scars or anything like that. It's nothing to be afraid of; I'm not a freak or a monster."

Sensing something odd Ron quickly recovered from his distress, "Whoa, never said you were. This is way cool, why would you think you're a freak for being able to do this?"

"My sisters," Bonnie mumbled as though she didn't want to talk about it but felt she had no choice, "ever since I found out I could do this they made very sure to let me know that it's not something normal people can do and to my sisters anything not normal or that they don't like is freakish."

"What about whoever taught you," Ron was struggling to process all the information being thrown at him, "didn't they tell you that it's rare but perfectly normal if you can do it and that it's nothing to think you're a monster for being able to do."

"No one taught me," Bonnie's laugh was full of bitterness, "my parents weren't as openly hostile to me being able to do magic as my sisters were but I always knew they were more than a little uncomfortable with it. Their response was to try to keep me from finding anything about magic that I could learn; I think they hoped that if I never found anything more that first time would be the only time."

Ron could only gape at her in amazement, he knew that he was very gifted with his Mystical Monkey Power, he'd been told so on many occasions. But that was after years of training and study under some of the only masters of the art in the entire world. It wasn't that he was unfamiliar with Healing Magic; there were several people who were skilled with it at Yamanouchi. But they were all taught for years like him and what Bonnie had done was beyond anything he'd ever seen the oldest and most skilled masters at Yamanouchi do.

"Look," Bonnie said in response to his silence, "I don't like you that much and I know you don't like me that much but I'm not going to do anything to you. I'll hang back far enough from you that you'll only have to deal with me when it's absolutely necessary and when we get to this school of yours you can drop me off with someone who doesn't know about what I can do."

She started to stand up but Ron snapped out of his stupor and grabbed her wrist, "Wait, I'm not saying anything yet. You just threw a whole lot of stuff at me and I needed some time to process it so now can I have my say?"

Bonnie nodded apprehensively.

Ron sat back down and began to concentrate his Mystical Monkey Power; slowly his hand began to be surrounded by a dim blue glow that brightened as he concentrated more of his power in his hand. He'd never managed to find a use for the ability, all that power in one place didn't even let him hit things harder but it was one of the only tangible signs he had of his powers and at the moment that was exactly what he needed.

"That's… You're…" Bonnie's eyes were fixed on his hand.

"Yeah," Ron said, "I don't have Healing Magic but I've seen it used before, I was just amazed because that was more than I've ever seen anyone do and you're self taught. I don't think that makes you anything resembling a freak but it definitely makes you unique. Is that kind of why you do your whole Ice Queen thing, to keep people from getting close to you?"

"Yes," Bonnie said softly, "my sisters hated me, my parents didn't want me like I was, and only my best friend actually didn't think it mattered that I could do this. Now she's probably dead and that means I have no one in the whole world. And it's all because of this stupid magic."

Ron had never understood the term 'velvet prison' before but now he was pretty sure he had a good understanding of it. He took his newly healed arm and gently draped it across Bonnie's shoulders. Surprisingly rather than push it away in anger she leaned into him like he was the only thing remotely approaching comfort in her world. Which, he thought, given her circumstances he might well be.

"Tell you what," he spoke after a lengthy silence, "let's start over."

"What?" Bonnie turned to look at him in confusion

"You and me," he gestured between the two of them, "from the introductions. We didn't do so well the first time around but maybe we should give this another try and see if we can't actually be friends. I know you're down to no friends in the entire world and this war has already taken me down to just one so I think we could both use a friend, and in case you didn't notice I don't really think your being able to do magic makes you any different than you were before."

Bonnie looked at him and pondered his proposition, the one thing that went through her mind was curiosity at just what he meant by the war had already brought him down to one friend, just what had he gone through before coming to rescue her? But she was without any friends in the world and he didn't seem to care about her Healing Magic, she didn't have to tell him her life story but she could give him another go at being friends.

"Bonnie Rockwaller," she stuck her hand out, "Princess of the Rockwall Kingdom but just call me Bonnie, I'd rather do away with all the formalities."

"Ron Stoppable," he took her hand, "don't really have any titles so you can call me Ron."

In the end they wasted the rest of the day on that little ledge reintroducing themselves to each other, with far better results than the first time around. But as they rolled up in their blankets to go to sleep both Ron and Bonnie thought that perhaps the day hadn't been much of a waste at all.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

Not being able to walk made Felix appreciate the little things more in life, at least he thought so. And however much he sometimes thought ill of other people in his village for taking things for granted for once he was completely with them in appreciating how nice it was to be alive. After the Drakanadians had found Princess Bonnie hiding outside the village many people had gathered all their belongings and prepared to flee believing that the Drakanadians would raze the village to make an example.

But for reasons beyond anyone in the village the Drakanadians had spared the village and everyone in it. Now they lived their lives under a constant blanket of fear that at any time a division of Drakanadian soldiers would come storming out of the woods to burn their buildings and kill all the people. The news wasn't all bad though, the few people who hadn't been actively resisting the Drakanadians before were now as active as anyone. In large part this was because everyone knew they were living on borrowed time and the Drakanadians didn't need any more reasons to kill them all and they therefore had nothing left to lose by resisting.

Even more impressive was that the princess' guards had made it back into the village mostly intact, a few had been found and hunted down but most of them were in quite impressive shape all things considered. This was, according to them; thanks to one of their own know as Big Mike. He was as his name implied quite big, he had been a horse thief before joining the royal guard and despite his bulk he could disappear and get into places a man a quarter of his size should have had trouble getting into.

They had also run into someone who was running a message from their informant in the castle and escorted them to the village to help avoid any Drakanadian notice. Felix was somewhat surprised that any messages had come through. Apparently their informant had been caught up in the turmoil that had come after Princess Bonnie had escaped and he, actually Felix didn't know if their informant was a man or a woman but he was pretty sure it was someone in the military which meant a man, had barely made it out with his life.

The message itself was the most disturbing part of the last week or so, the first part of it said quite plainly that the Drakanadians were building up for a push unlike anything they'd tried before. The sole aim of the attack would be to dislodge the Allies from the southern Rockwall Kingdom and gain a foothold in the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately in the chaos of the last few days the second part of the message was lost and as a matter of course the message runners didn't memorize their messages so they couldn't have it extracted from them. The little bit that was attached to the first part though made Felix's blood run cold, apparently the Drakanadians were planning something even bigger but without that second part of the message no one would know what exactly it was.

AN: I promised you a shorter wait didn't I? It's mostly because for how much work law school is it's settled into a routine which means I can write around it. I know this chapter was a bit loaded with Ron and Bonnie again but you need to get caught up on her and theirs is the most important plot thread right now. Everyone else will get their chance to shine before the end though so don't worry if you want to see what happens to the others. All you have to do is keep coming back and reading. Ciao


	12. Arrival

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible, God it feels good to write something so simple

Chapter Eleven: Arrival

please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XII, subject Legal Systems-

The legal system of the three Kingdoms as it is today is one that has largely evolved from the blending of cultures following the First Invasion. Prior to the First Invasion the Kingdoms of Upperton and Lowerton had what has become known as a civil law system, one that places great emphasis on the written law. These systems evolved due to the fact that communications across the kingdoms were unreliable in many aspects and a common set of written laws that could be applied similarly was thought to be the most advantageous system. In the Kingdom of Middleton communications were facilitated by a much more complete road network and a common law system much more similar to what is in use today came into being. In this common law system the interpretation of written laws by courts and decisions by courts on existing matters carried a far greater weight. Following the creation of the Three Kingdoms a sort of ad hoc merger occurred of the legal systems. Far too many people in the Kingdoms of Upperton and Lowerton lived under the civil law system for it to be abolished and with the political control flowing from Middleton the common law system had too much importance to give way to civil law. Thus over the intervening centuries the legal system evolved to incorporate the necessity for basic written legal guidelines across the breadth of the realm as well as to incorporate existing decisions to better ensure equal enforcement of the laws.

Given the general lack of information regarding all things Drakanadian it is not at all unusual that we know very little about the Drakanadian legal system. What we do know is that many of the rights citizens of the Three Kingdoms enjoy, writ of Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, are nowhere to be found in Drakanada. Our best guess about their legal system is that the central government appoints regional governors who mediate property disputes and preside over criminal trials such as they exist. Readers are cautioned to note that this is at best an uneducated guess and the reality may prove far different.

**-Yamanouchi School-**

Bonnie was not normally someone easily impressed. Growing up as a princess in the Rockwall Kingdom she had seen amazing sights on a near regular basis since she could remember. Setting aside the scenery she had grown up with Bonnie lived in a country renowned for its masonry and had seen many buildings composed of magnificent stonework. The Three Kingdoms covered an amazing breadth of terrain and during her learning experience as a doctor she had seen quite a bit of it, plenty of which was beautiful but none of which truly impressed her. Even Middleton itself was just another city, certainly the largest one she had ever seen but to Bonnie it was still just one among many.

None of that was the case however as she stared at the monastery that had come into sight as Ron had led her behind a waterfall and through what could only be called a hole in a mountain. The stone buildings of what she finally knew to be called Yamanouchi seemed to rise straight up from the mountains. Cherry blossom trees rose up over sparking white walls and the deep red tile rooftops made her think of sunset when it was barely past noon. More than the sheer magnificence of the structure it was the knowledge that here was something truly unique in the world that impressed Bonnie, everything else she was supposed to be impressed by had merely been the greatest of its kind but here was something that was undeniably one of a kind.

The school was blessedly at a lower altitude than where they had been travelling for most of the last few days. Bonnie was normally in excellent physical shape but so much time spent at altitude with not enough food or sleep had taken its toll and considering that she had already been far from her peak after a month in the village she was pushing her limits as it was. Not that she'd let Ron know, tenuous friendship they might have Bonnie's pride still wouldn't let her take her guard down unless she had no choice. And the fact that he'd seen her guard down once already made her that much more reluctant to have a second episode.

"Bonnie," she looked up to see Ron staring back at her from farther down the bridge, "you just gonna stand there staring or are you going to come on in?"

"Well I would," Bonnie decided to indulge her ego a bit, "If someone here would come and get my bags. I mean you can't expect a princess to enter anywhere carrying her own bags can you?"

"Actually I can," Ron turned and started walking, "so get your bags and follow me."

Bonnie sighed and glared at his retreating form, tenuous friendship they might have scratched out over the last few days he still seemed to enjoy nettling her far too much.

The rope bridge they had to cross to get to the school proper swayed only lightly and Bonnie got the impression that everything about this place was made to be subtle but also of the highest quality. At the other side of the bridge she caught up to a still grinning Ron who turned and pushed open the large main gates. Bonnie figured this meant someone had known about their arrival and left the front door unlocked for them. Yamanouchi after all did not seem like a place that just let anyone wonder in at any time. On the other side of a gate there was a small courtyard with another set of gates behind it, the space looked and apparently functioned as a receiving area but Bonnie also knew that if anyone were to attack this place an area like this could be a death trap.

"Welcome back Stoppable-san," Bonnie turned to see an old man walk out of the shadows, "and greetings to you Princess Bonnie of the Rockwall Kingdom, it is an honor to meet you at last. I am Sensei, master of the Yamanouchi School; we would be honored to have you as a guest within our walls."

"Um thanks," Bonnie was taken aback and yet somehow unsurprised that this Sensei knew who she was. Then falling back on a lifetime of honed instincts she recovered, "Thank you for your hospitality Sensei, the honor is all mine."

"Sensei," Ron stepped forward and bowed, "it's good to be back but I can't accept any shelter here. I failed the school and let Yori die; I should be run out of here and driven away for how badly I screwed up."

"You have done neither of those things Stoppable-san," Sensei's voice hadn't changed but there was a greater air of command about it somehow, "you did all any man could hope to do with your mission. More than what we who sent you could have ever hoped you might accomplish on such a dangerous mission. And Yori's death is not your fault, we are all saddened by her loss but you both knew how dangerous the mission was when you accepted it. Instead of dwelling on the past and what cannot be changed you should honor her memory by doing all you can to make sure her death was with purpose and that the ideals she lived for never die."

Bonnie still didn't know much anything about this Yori, just that she had been very important to Ron, she was dead now, and Bonnie was willing to guess that Yori had been a student at Yamanouchi. More than that remained a complete mystery to her and Bonnie Rockwaller was not a person who enjoyed mysteries, at least not until she knew everything about them.

"If you will follow me," Sensei's voice brought Bonnie out of her musings and a quick look confirmed that Ron had been lost in thought as well, "you are both weary from your travels and need rest and food. It will be our honor to provide both to you and when you are ready you can continue your journey towards Middleton."

"Excuse me," Bonnie couldn't help trying to keep pushing herself, "not to be rude or anything but we really are in a hurry. And not that I don't think you want to help but every day really does count so if we could just have like a hot meal we need to keep moving."

"Your desire to aid your people is admirable and serves you well," Sensei turned to face her, "however you must be careful not to lose sight of your ability to help them in your drive to do so. If you are weak from hunger and too exhausted to stand you will be able to do little more than fall into the hands of the Drakanadians. The Yamanouchi School receives regular updates about the war and I can tell you that the Drakanadian advance has been halted. As much pain as I am sure you feel for your people under the oppression of the invaders you have an obligation to them to take care of yourself so that when the time comes you can do all that you are able to in your quest to help free them."

Ron had been saying much the same to her ever since they started travelling together, but somehow when Sensei said the words they seemed so much… _more_. "Thank you, it's just so hard to know that I'm safe and well here when so many of my people, even my best friend, are dead or enslaved."

"The Drakanadians have done much harm to this world," Sensei said gravely, "but with a will like yours we will be able to heal what they have done to your people."

"That reminds me," Ron spoke up out of nowhere, "Sensei, I almost forgot to tell you but Bonnie has healing magic, and not just a little, we're talking more than anyone I've ever seen."

Bonnie just stared as Ron outed her deepest secret, Sensei however turned to the young man, "you are sure of this?"

"Yeah," Ron pulled down the collar of his shirt to show his previously hurt shoulder, "I had a nasty sword slice down here; she got it to look like this in a minute. I'd need a week with anyone else here and there'd still be a scar."

Bonnie was ready to scream and rage at Ron but her anger evaporated as Sensei turned and bowed to her, "We are in your debt Bonnie Rockwaller. I must confess to one curiosity though, I had believed the greatest healers in the world resided here but it is clear that is not the case. We would consider ourselves even more indebted to you if you would tell us who taught you such magic."

"No one," Bonnie said softly, "I taught myself everything I know."

Unlike Ron's initial reaction there was no mistaking Sensei's look of admiration for anything but what it really was. Not that she was overjoyed with Ron's decision to tell Sensei and for that matter she wasn't ready to go announce what she could do to everyone she could find. But maybe, just maybe, there were more people out there than she originally thought who wouldn't look on what she could do as some sort of freakish power.

"Come on Bon-Bon," Ron clapped a hand on her shoulder, "no need to be all shy about it, learning that much without any help is way awesome. Sensei raising his eyebrows like that is like someone else screaming and foaming at the mouth."

"Bon-Bon?" Bonnie fixed him with an icy glare, "My mother called me Bon-Bon when she was talking to me like I was two years old. I only put up with it from her because I had no other choice and there is no way I am putting up with Bon-Bon from you, got it?"

"Yeah," Ron squeaked, "no more Bon-Bon."

"Princess Bonnie," Sensei stepped in before Ron could dig himself even deeper, "would I be correct in believing that most of your experiences with people finding out about your abilities have been unpleasant?" At her nod he went on, "It is quite understandable why you are reluctant to let others know, however here you will find that magic such as yours is admired and not feared. If Stoppable-san is correct about the scope of your abilities we may be able to teach you little indeed. But there are others with healing magic at Yamanouchi who may be able to help you realize the pride you should take in being able to accomplish what you can."

Bonnie started to reply but before she could do more than open her mouth Ron pushed open the inner doors and they walked into the main courtyard. Upon seeing the center of the Yamanouchi School Bonnie's open mouth turned into a dropped jaw. All over there were people in various garbs practicing all manner of ninja exercises, and over in one corner a sight that truly mesmerized her, students who had been injured were being treated by doctors using healing magic.

Almost automatically her feet started walking towards the sight before she caught herself and turned around, "Can I…"

Sensei's mouth twitched upwards into an almost imperceptible smile, "our healing masters will be at your full disposal to learn all you can during your time here."

Bonnie was almost halfway across the courtyard by the time her backpack hit the ground.

"Sensei," Ron spoke remarkably softly, "thanks for not going too harsh on me in front of Bonnie but I'm ready to have it for screwing up and letting Yori die."

"Walk with me Stoppable-san," at Ron's look of confusion he continued, "you have been ignoring and fighting through all your grief and guilt to fight the battles you must. It is admirable that you have shown such strength but when the battle is over you must confront what has happened and overcome it or else you cannot move on from that battle to the ones that lie ahead. Now that you have returned and you are safe for the time being it is important you accept what happened to Yori as outside of your control and move on. The speed with which the Drakanadians moved took us all by surprise and you did more than anyone to bring warning of the danger, now we must ask you to do more than anyone to overcome this danger."

"That's just the thing," Ron sighed, "I don't think I can. I'm so caught up on how I failed Yori that I think it's making me dangerous."

"How so?" Sensei opened the door to his study and ushered Ron in, "I have not seen anything that makes me believe you cannot safely escort Princess Bonnie back to Middleton."

Ron gratefully accepted a cup of tea, "It's almost the opposite. When I first rescued Bonnie we had to escape from a whole bunch of Drakanadian soldiers. Right at the end they had us surrounded and I was wounded, they went to grab her and something inside me just snapped. I couldn't get it out of my head how I had failed Yori and how I wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else, before I knew what happened my Mystical Monkey Power went into overdrive or something and hoisted all of them up into the air and snapped their necks. It didn't feel like my normal magic either, it felt evil but at the same time it felt really, really good and that's freaking me out. When it happened I actually enjoyed killing them, like I was some sort of superior being because of what I can do and I could crush them just because they dared to do something I didn't like."

Sensei paused in thought and when he spoke it was slowly, as though each word was carefully chosen. "You have never been taught about how the Drakanadians use magic have you?" Ron shook his head no, "When I was much younger, your age, I was sent on a mission to infiltrate such a school and learn all I could. It was dangerous and I barely escaped with my life but while there I learned much about the Drakanadians. They teach their students to have the same feeling you had when you lost control. Also in my time there they taught considerably different techniques with magic, nothing like what you did but more for a lack of power than a lack of desire. What I took away from that experience is that magic is like a tool, it can be used for good and for evil. While certain techniques are more suited to the ends of good or evil much of what we do is controlled by whether we ourselves are good or evil. And you must remember Stoppable-san that in the best of us there is some evil and in the worst of us there is some good. That you are so concerned with your actions makes me confident you are in no immediate danger but it also makes it more important than ever that you come to terms with what happened to Yori and learn to overcome it. Only by doing that can you prevent more losses of control and truly live a life that honors her memory. But take great care in the future, evil does not announce itself as such and if you are not careful you may find yourself pursuing good but doing evil."

"You're right," Ron stared down into his tea, "It's just this is all so big that there's no way I can do this myself. And when I screw up this time a lot more people than just Yori are going to pay the price."

Sensei put down his tea to look directly at Ron, "This is not a journey you will make alone, to believe that would be the gravest of mistakes. Yamanouchi will offer you whatever assistance we may, Kim Possible and her family will no doubt do what they can to help you, in her own way I believe even Princess Bonnie is aiding you on this journey. And there is someone else who has been through much with you who has been waiting for you."

"Oh man, Rufus!" Ron groaned, "I totally forgot about the little guy. Any chance I can sneak by the kitchens for a little bribery before I go get him? I don't think I want to add an angry naked mole rat to my list of problems right now."

"As I said Stoppable-san," Sensei allowed himself an amused smile, "the Yamanouchi School will offer you whatever assistance we can."

AN: I have an excuse for the long wait this time! My computer monitor decided to play dead and while I know my keyboard rather well typing a whole story when you can't see a thing is just not cool. But it works again and I wasted no time writing this for you. I know this chapter and the last few have been all Ron and Bonnie but the next few are really going to be pushing everyone else forward again so those of you looking forward to that, well look forward even more. So until next time ciao all.


	13. Hither and Yon

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I went to law school and I still don't own this. I just can't win…

Chapter Twelve: Hither and Yon

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIX, subject Steam Power-

A rather trivial notion but one that has gained an increasing following as a practical substitute to wind power and manual labor in the years since it was first conceived. Like wind power, steam power generates mechanical energy by exerting force upon a piston. According to the so called scholars who promote steam power this motion could be harnessed to power any number of things. The most absurd notion yet conceived must either be that one could use this 'invention' to power a ship or even to turn wheels on some sort of land vehicle that would be set on iron rails. That one might purport to make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks is an absurdity this reputable institution will not delve into. The same holds true for the idea that one might turn a windmill on its side and roll it alongside horse and buggy.

One supposed use that despite continued attempts at reason by more enlightened minds has not been abandoned is the idea that this steam power could be used to pull water to the surface. With the majority of the Rockwall Kingdom and the Three Kingdoms supplied by melt water from glaciers and snowpack the need for any large-scale use of this method is even more ridiculous than the 'science' behind it. Where its supporters persist are in the mines of the western Three Kingdoms. Here mining efforts are continually hampered by water from subterranean pockets rising into mineshafts. Some people with imaginations run wild dare to suggest that using steam power could be more efficient at removing this water than the windmills presently in use powering the screw devices used to lift water out of the mines.

Many other 'miracle' replacements for manual labor and wind power have come and gone. None however have had the support or apparent theoretical utility of steam power in the past. Nevertheless we of the Royal Academy are confident that in time cooler heads will prevail and such nonsense will cease to hamper progress.

**-Middleton -**

Josh stared at the lightly curved blade resting on the table as though it was speaking to him. While speaking was perhaps not the best term it was clear to him that in some form the sword was unmistakably communicating. Questions of his sanity aside on a given day Josh would content himself by saying that he was not a danger to himself holding a sword. Experience let him call his best days mediocre as a combatant. But somehow staring at the sword he could picture himself as a one man army not unlike heroes out of myth and legend. As the images of impossible feats of swordsmanship whirled through his head Josh slowly started reaching out to remove the blade from its perch.

"It's overwhelming the first time you get near it. Isn't it?"

The voice broke Josh from his trance but it was several seconds before his brain reconnected itself to reality and he turned to see who had interrupted him.

"Majesty," Josh said in surprise as he dropped to one knee, "forgive me but I just…"

"Don't worry," the king waved Josh back to his feet, "like I said the sword can draw you quite deeply in even if you know what it is. I don't suppose you know exactly what this sword is Mr. Mankey?"

"No sir," Josh turned to look back at the sword, "I'd say it's just a regular sword but looking at it and listening to you makes me think that's not the right answer."

"It's called a Lotus Blade," the king walked past Josh and picked up the sword, "there are only a handful of them in the entire world and just as few people know they even exist. They're also older than just about anything we know of. If you comb through the few history books covering time before Upperton, Lowerton, and Middleton had consolidated all the lands south of the Rockwalls you can find a few mentions of strange ancient blades."

"Sir I don't at all mean to argue," Josh struggled to pull his eyes away from the sword, "but that sword looks almost new. I can't possibly believe the people before the Three Kingdoms would call a blade this unworn ancient."

"I don't blame you at all," the king said, "Lotus Blades are as strange as they are rare. They don't rust, chip, or dull. This Lotus Blade has been in the palace since it was a castle meant more to withstand a siege than to be an administrative center. But the most incredible thing about a Lotus Blade is that it imprints the experiences of its wielders and lets others tap into that experience. Using this sword someone like you who normally considers a good day not cutting yourself could well… not defeat a whole army but you get the point."

"I…" Josh sputtered, he had protested his 'heroic' status for so long without anyone listening that it only now occurred to him he had never though what to do when someone listened to him.

"I know the stories of your heroics are greatly exaggerated," the king chuckled, "I've looked over your service record and I think you'd do more for the war effort with ink and quill than with sword and shield. But when they tell you that you have absolute power, turns out they're lying. I was all for giving you that promotion back at the start of the war but by the time I figured out how little combat suited you events had already outrun anything I could do. At least until I managed to catch up with them and get you this desk job. Before I send you off to Upperton I want to make sure one last time that you have your orders straight."

"Yes sir," Josh had been caught off guard by the king's casual tone and was much more comfortable speaking business, "Princess Kimberly will be overseeing the preparations for our invasion of eastern Drakanada I'm to depart from the main courtyard in an hour's time with her entourage for Upperton and once we arrive I'm to help her in whatever ways she sees fit."

"I see you're still in the habit of memorizing orders after your stints as a messenger," the king grabbed a sheath from behind the table and slid the Lotus Blade into it, "it's a habit you should keep but you're actually leaving right now and you're not quite leaving from the main courtyard."

Josh knew that Middleton was the largest city in the known world. It was possible that some city in Drakanada might be bigger but from the little he knew about the place he wouldn't bet more than he could scrape from the bottom of his shoes. Apparently Middleton wasn't just the biggest city in the world above ground. Josh was a few steps behind Princess Kimberly and while the lanterns they were carrying didn't illuminate the whole sewer it appeared that the walkways to either side of the waterway were wide enough for 3 men to walk abreast comfortably.

"Come on, we don't have all day." Josh pulled his attention away from the size of the sewers to see that Princess Kimberly had walked a considerable distance ahead of him while he had been dawdling.

"I'm sorry Princess Kimberly," Josh apologized quickly catching up with her," it's just…"

"Kim," the Princess cut him off then continued at his look of confusion, "I get enough Princess Kimberly, your highness, my lady, and all that other simpering nonsense from just about everyone I talk to and I'm stopping you from picking that up right now. You call me Kim I'll call you Josh and that will be that. Now what had you so distracted?"

"Well Pri… Kim," Josh corrected himself, "it's these sewers. I've been in sewers before and except for where you climb down from above they're so small you have to crawl single file and you have to shutter your lantern because you're so close to it a twitch will burn you. But here we are strolling down what would make a decent street in some villages and you're calling it a sewer."

"They weren't originally sewers," Kim jerked a thumb at one of the rounded walls, "during the First Invasion there were a couple of times where it looked like the Drakanadians would break our lines and get into Middleton. If that happened they would have headed here and laid siege to the city. I'm sure you know from experience how little fun it is to move men and material with arrows and rocks falling from the sky. It wasn't any better back then so the garrison was ordered to start digging underground tunnels that could move troops and supplies in the event we had a Drakanadian army camped outside our walls. After the war ended the tunnels were there and not doing anything so they were turned into a sewer system. There wasn't any reason to keep excavating after the war so these tunnels mostly only run under the older parts of the city, pretty much the entire city built after the First Invasion has sewers like what you were talking about. But there are a few tunnels that were built out into the surrounding countryside, originally they could be used to evacuate civilians or get men outside to attack besiegers from two directions. Now they're used more for drainage than anything since they get sewage away from people."

"I guess that makes sense," Josh rolled his shoulders to adjust his pack of gear, "I'm still not quite sure why we're walking down a sewage tunnel while your guards are guarding an empty carriage going through the streets right now."

"I would have thought a great war hero like you would have figured that out by now," Kim let out a snort most unbecoming a princess, "I'm pretty sure that I'm not at the very top of their list but I doubt the Drakanadians would let a chance to kill me go to waste. So the plan is that while any agents they have are watching the fancy carriage pulled by all those horses with all the guards around it and trying to attack an empty carriage we take a cart pulled by a donkey and slip under their noses."

"That's actually a really good idea," Josh said, "and it'll be nice to get back to Upperton. I know our sewers are a bit cramped but I think you'll like the place."

"I have been to Upperton before," Kim shot him a withering look, "and Lowerton, and all through the whole Kingdom of Middleton, and even up into the Rockwall Kingdom. I don't know what you've been raised to think but when there isn't a war on my family tries to spend as much time as possible traveling the realm."

"Whoa just joking." Josh raised his hands in protest, "I'll keep the game face on from now on."

"Sorry," Kim frowned, "it's just that my best friend is somewhere between here and Drakanada with most of their army looking for him. Between that, all the stress from the war, and actually realizing that the Drakanadians want to kill me personally my temper is a bit shorter than usual. I hope you can at least understand the stress of people singling you out of a whole group to kill."

"Not really," Josh looked off into the darkness thinking back to the front lines, "I'm not even a little bit the hero I'm cracked up to be. And in the trenches we were all doing our level best to kill the other side and I guess after a point it stops mattering how much they want to kill you since they're already doing everything they can."

"Modesty," Kim tried to smile but it couldn't lift the stress from her face, "I checked the maps of our travel route and it goes fairly close to your family's lands. I should stop in and get the truth behind all these legends sprouting up about you from your parents."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Josh said hesitantly, "I get along with my parents just fine and don't get me wrong after being in the trenches for as long as I have there's no place I'd rather be. It's just that even if I went alone they'd find ways to keep me far longer than we can afford. And we're rather minor nobility so if news of the princess being on their estates spread we'd never leave."

"Well maybe on our way back after we've beaten the Drakanadians," Kim slipped back on the mask of royalty she wore so well, "I still want to see what's behind the legend you're building up."

Josh would have preferred the princess to prefer to never meet his parents rather than put it off for another day. But then everything he'd seen made him think that this war would never end so maybe that later day would be far enough in the future he could figure another way to avoid that dreaded meeting.

**-Yamanouchi-**

Ordinarily Ron was not one to let his pride matter much. For a person whose pants had an ongoing losing battle with gravity this was almost a must in order to continue to lead a sane life. But after two days of rest at Yamanouchi Ron's pride was biting larger than it usually did. The reason for this was simple, even while resting Ron kept a light exercise regimen to ensure that he wouldn't find himself in not good enough shape at a critical moment. Mountain climbing, strenuous as it was simply didn't exercise every muscle in the body. The workouts that went with even light training at Yamanouchi did. It was this basic reality that had the young man sprawled in a mix of general soreness and unpleasantness at lunch time. His only solace was that the other experienced ninjas weren't laughing. Every student who had graduated from basic courses to more specialized ones and gone on a long term assignment knew what Ron was going through right then.

"What ever happened to you being a big strong guy?" Ron pried his eyes open to see Bonnie standing over him, "practically getting your arm cut off barely slows you down but a little running and jumping is too much?"

"Yes," Ron croaked, "Killigan just wanted to kill me. The people at Yamanouchi know how."

"Well I can't have that," Bonnie cracked her knuckles, "I've finally started making progress on getting some use out of you. I'm not going to let them kill you and make me start all over with some other ninja wannabe."

Before he could respond she knelt down and planted her index and middle fingers on his forehead. Once again that pleasant warmth spread through him from the point of contact and he felt his fatigue and soreness drain away.

"There," She stood back up, "that should have you feeling more than a little better. But be careful, I can fix your muscles being sore but the fact that you're not tired any more is more like I just dumped as much coffee as a normal person would drink in a week down your throat in one go. You had better get plenty of sleep tonight; I will so leave you behind if you can't keep up because you're too tired when we get out of here."

"Will do," Ron had found it wise to not argue with Bonnie, "and correct me if I'm wrong but healing students aren't supposed to have lunch when the general students. Keeps the kitchens from getting overwhelmed."

"They don't," Bonnie said, "not to brag or anything but all the healing masters said that I'm beyond what they teach the general classes. Speaking of general classes I thought you were supposed to be past all that, don't tell me they really did send an amateur to rescue me."

"Easy," Ron hauled himself to a sitting position, "the novice students train for _everything_, advanced students start specializing, and graduates like me are out doing missions. Mountain climbing is tough work but there are whole muscle groups not getting worked, then I come back here and you bet they get worked out."

"If you say so," Bonnie started walking towards the kitchens, "but I meant what I said about leaving you tomorrow if you're not ready to go."

Ron sat the lantern on a nearby table and knocked gently on Sensei's door. He could feel that Bonnie had been right when she said he would start to feel tired later in the day. He hadn't trained nearly hard enough to exhaust himself but he knew he would sleep quite soundly. With how early Bonnie wanted to leave and his certainty that she would indeed leave him behind he would have been perfectly content to be asleep right now; but Sensei had asked to talk to him after dinner and Sensei was one of the last people Ron would ignore.

"Enter," Sensei called through the door.

Ron walked in to the room to see Sensei sitting at a low desk with several old parchments spread out before him. Very old Ron corrected himself upon seeing the seals of the containers the parchments had been in, those came from the oldest archives at Yamanouchi some even older than the Three Kingdoms.

"You have a great task ahead of you Stoppable-San," Sensei motioned him over to the desk, "I have sought the wisdom of the ancients hoping to learn lessons I might use to help you. As you can see I have even sought aid from the prophecies of old."

"Sensei," Ron sat down, "I totally appreciate the thought. It's just half the time I don't think those things are even close to right. And when you're lucky enough that they look like someone way back when saw the future it's so badly written no one can make sense of it in time to do anything with it. I'd rather send someone to find if Bonnie's friend is still alive and if we can do anything to help her. That would get Bonnie to think a lot more about what we still have to do and make my life a lot easier."

"I have already spoken with the princess," Sensei looked up from the parchments, "I have not promised her anything but I will send one of our agents to see if there is anything we can do. And if you will permit I believe I may have something to teach you about how prophecies work."

"Okay," Sensei had never so much as changed his voice yet Ron felt thoroughly chastised.

"Like most who have never been taught it appears you have misconceptions about prophecies. To begin with, I am sure you are aware no prophet has lived for over a thousand years. As our control over magic has increased we have gained much but many talents have been lost. You must also realize that prophecy was far from an exact science. If prophecy acted as you wish I can assure you we would not have been taken by surprise by the Drakanadians. It can however give us broader guidance into the approach we should take to certain events."

"I did not know that," Ron spoke into the pause, "I always thought they were trying to tell us that something was going to happen and when and they were just really bad at it."

"A common error of the uninitiated," Sensei chuckled, "I did not however call you here to tell you an exact date and time. Rather I believe I have some advice for you that may prove crucial if we are to win this war."

"I'm all for winning," Ron said.

"As are we all," Sensei replied, "since trying to show you what I have discovered from the writing itself would avail us nothing I believe I shall simply tell you what I have learned. One of the older prophecies speaks of a second conflict between the north and south. It also speaks of what I believe is great danger to Princess Bonnie. If we are to defeat the Drakanadians I believe that her safety is essential. I have also come across passages that lead me to believe it must be you to ensure that you both can carry out what we will require of you for victory."

"Sensei not that I'm not thrilled you have faith in me but once I get Bonnie to Middleton she'll have a whole army between her and the Drakanadians. There has to be something more direct I can do to help us win the war."

"I apologize Stoppable-san for not being so clear as I should have been. I believe that if it is not you who guards the princess I am sure a whole army will not be able to ensure her safety and we will fall with her." Sensei stood up and walked over to a cabinet. "To that end I have a gift for you."

Sensei opened the cabinet and pulled out a sword. The scabbard was plain and worn but showed obvious signs of being well cared for. As Sensei drew the blade from its scabbard Ron couldn't keep his jaw from going slack.

"Sensei," Ron managed to speak, "That's a Lotus Blade, there's only a few of those in the world. You can't actually mean for me to use one."

"I am glad you know what it is," Sensei took the sword through a few flourishes; "I assume you know what this blade is capable of."

"Yeah," Ron said, "a novice on their first day could, well I don't know if they could beat you but they could come close. I know I could beat you with that thing and there's no way I could even come close in a fair fight."

"That is correct," Sensei sheathed the blade, "I know you are hesitant to trust in your own abilities. But I have faith in you Stoppable-san, you have come this far and with this blade I believe completely that you can do your part to see us to victory."

Ron slowly stretched out his hand and took the Lotus Blade.

AN: I promised I would finish this story if it took me 5 years. I don't think it's going to take that long. Way back when I said law school wasn't that bad I may have perhaps possibly odd chance misspoken. Any which way law school is over, the bar exam is defeated and now I return to slaving away for your reading pleasure. I went back and carefully re-read the whole story before really diving into this but I apologize if there are any continuity gaps. And just to get you to read this and come back there are some important hints about where the story is going hidden deep in here but I'm not giving them out until I get to those chapters. I beg forgiveness for being away so long and I hope everyone new, and if I've kept anyone that long old, enjoys this story to the finish.


	14. Downhill

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: If I owned Kim Possible my bicycle would be a lot fancier and newer.

Chapter Thirteen: Downhill

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XX, subject Transportation-

One of the most important yet overlooked accomplishments of the Three Kingdoms has been the standardization and integration of the network of royal, private, and other public roads into one system that allows for the rapid transportation of goods where river or other water transportation is not available. Canals are the primary means of water based transportation in the Three Kingdoms. They are principally used to transport goods and people in a north to south direction; this generally tracks the geographic trend of the land south of the Rockwall Mountains and therefore the flow of water. Some canals offer mule-drawn services going back north but these tend to be slow, expensive, and restricted to heavy goods where land transport would simply be impractical. Of particular note in the effects of the canal system on the development of the Three Kingdoms has been in the use of canals and natural waterways to transport the vast timber harvests from the mountains in Lowerton to fuel the economies of Upperton and Middleton. It has been estimated that in the years before the Second Invasion that nearly a million board feet was transported by water from the mountains to the mills around various cities.

Roads in the Three Kingdoms tend to be built to a general standard. Most roads are between 5 to 8 meters and have a slight incline from the middle to each side to aid in drainage. It is an important note that 5 to 8 meters is an average figure, major highways in and around cities can be 15 meters and village roads can be the width of a few people. Many older roads, some dating from before the unification of the Three Kingdoms, can pose difficulties for travelers since they were built before engineers learned to survey corners. This leads to roads that do not take a gradual serpentine path up mountains or go around various obstructions but rather go over or through whatever is in their path. A great deal of these roads have fallen into disuse as newer more convenient routes have been built but for many people in rural areas these old roads remain an important part of their existence. In the far southern reaches of the realm near the polar seas some roads are topped with tar distilled from oil that pools above ground. This system offers several advantages over the paving stones and concrete used in the rest of the Three Kingdoms but the cost of transporting the oil and distilling it in quantities for large scale use remains prohibitive.

For more on the ludicrous idea of a 'land-ship' on iron rails please see the entry for Steam Power.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

To say that Tara had had a bad few weeks would be a gross understatement. She wanted to say that Connie and Lonnie hadn't come up with anything worse to do to her than that first night but if she was being honest there was a point past which attempting to quantify her suffering became meaningless. In some ways the worst part of her existence was the isolation she found herself under. While everyone suffered to some degree under the occupation the fact that Connie and Lonnie had taken personal interest in Tara's misery made association with her a risk so certain even the bravest wouldn't get any closer to her for any longer than they absolutely had to. On the other hand it made it far easier to go about her attempts to funnel as much intelligence as she could to the Three Kingdoms. In a room filled with people anyone could be an informer, but if she was always alone she knew to be on her highest guard whenever anyone was around her.

Unfortunately for her and who knew how many people depended on her information the Drakanadians had finally suffered what she could only describe as a fit of common sense. They hadn't figured out that she was the leak in their intelligence, if they had she most likely would have been executed on the spot, but they knew someone was leaking their plans and had finally done something about it. Their code for writing up plans was simple but without the key someone as harried as Tara would never have the time to decipher the writings that came across Connie and Lonnie's desks. She thought about rote copying the coded messages and sending those, surely the Three Kingdoms could decipher the codes, but it would mean she would have to spend far more time writing than the brief summaries she had been making.

Fortunately Tara had come up with a solution to this. The only bump was that it would require compressing all the risk of a year's worth of messages into a few minutes of sheer insanity on her part. She knew that Connie and Lonnie had the code keys on them; she had after all seen them locking them in their desks. And there arose the problem; unlike most messages which they so graciously left lying about for Tara to copy someone had seen fit to impose on them the condition that they do something sensible with the keys. It wasn't that Tara couldn't sneak about the castle or pick locks, Bonnie and her had snuck out enough times during their teenage years that those mandatory skills had been ingrained, it was just that the stakes were so much higher here.

Stopping in front of their door she slid a few basic lock-picking tools from her calf high boots and took a deep breath. Tara looked one last time in either direction down the hallway and seeing no-one crouched in front of the door and set to work. It wasn't that the locks on the castle doors were particularly easy to pick, before the Drakanadians had carted them off there used to be plenty of valuables in the castle thieves would be very attracted to. Rather it was simply that Tara had more experience picking those locks than perhaps anyone alive and it wasn't long before a single moment stretched to twenty years as the lock clicked and the door started to swing open before she caught it. Holding back a sigh of relief at the silence that came from the room Tara slid the shutters on her lantern so only the tiniest sliver of light pierced the darkness and crept towards the princesses' study.

In a backhanded way she was almost grateful that Connie and Lonnie had worked her so hard at that moment. Otherwise she never would have had a mental layout of their suites firm enough to let her move as silently and quickly as she did with so little light. The door to the study opened silently, not least because Tara had oiled a few select hinges earlier that day. Tara crept into the study for her second ill-advised task of the night and closed the door behind her. The small chest with the code keys presented a different challenge from the door to the suite. While the lock itself was considerably easier than the door in a strictly objective sense it was also much smaller and Tara had been forced to improvise tools by thinning and then curving a pin till she was fairly certain it would do.

Picking the chest took about as long as it had taken to pick the lock on the door. Tara knew the click was quieter but to her ears it still seemed like that small noise should have been audible on the far side of the world. Once again after a few short moments that seemed to stretch into years Tara was certain that neither Connie nor Lonnie had been woken by her activities. Taking a roll of paper from her other boot Tara opened the shutters on her lantern enough so she could work and then using the quill and ink already on the desk copied the code key onto the paper.

Not wanting to spend any more time than was absolutely necessary where she wasn't supposed to be Tara put the code key back in the chest and closed it. Then she closed the ink and put it and the quill _exactly_ where it had been when she entered. Finally she closed the shutters on her lantern till only the sliver shone through and made her way back to the hallway closing the doors as silently as a ghost. Shutting the door to Connie and Lonnie's suite she came as close as she would that night to breathing a sigh of relief.

"Hold it right there!" With that one voice from behind her down the hallway Tara felt her stomach get intimately acquainted with her feet.

"What are you doing out after curfew?" Tara felt brief hope that whoever had discovered her didn't know why she was out but that hope evaporated when she realized that in her haste to get back to her own cell she had neglected to put the her copied code key back in her boot. She briefly considered trying to hide the paper in her bodice but Connie and Lonnie had been encouraging Drakanadian soldiers to take certain "liberties" with her since she had so narrowly escaped execution and the chances this soldier might take advantage of that and find the paper was too great. With a silent prayer to whoever might listen she slid the paper up her sleeve and turned to face him.

"Frugal Lucre, soldier of the Drakanadian Army demands to know who you are!" Tara had never been a particularly good liar but with desperation fueling her she decided that this was an excellent time to pick up that particular skill.

"My name is Tara," she turned around to see an all around unimpressive looking soldier but the sword at his side meant unimpressive or not she had to tread carefully, "I'm a servant here in the castle and Princess Connie called me to fetch her a late night snack. I just brought it and I was on my way back when you stopped me."

"I am new here," Lucre scratched at fuzz on his chin that was making a rather pitiful attempt at a beard, "I do not know that you are telling me the truth. I will ask the princess myself."

Stamping down panic Tara tried to stall him. "Look since you're new here let me give you a tip. Connie and Lonnie have _very_ short tempers and one thing that is sure to set them off is waking them up in the middle of their beauty sleep. They call us servants for all sorts of things as the most ridiculous hours, you can ask any other servant and they'll tell you I'm right."

For the third time that night Tara felt a handful of moments stretch out far longer than they had any business doing. Lucre looked long and hard at her and then at the door. After far too long for Tara's health he waved her off.

"I too am familiar with the mighty making us commoners work, make sure the next time this happens you let a guard know before wandering about. Other soldiers are not so forgiving as I am."

As Frugal Lucre walked down the hallway out of earshot Tara finally let out the sigh of relief she had been holding in since her misadventure started. With the adrenaline wearing off Tara could feel every hour of sleep she hadn't gotten. She wanted nothing more than to go back to her dirty and uncomfortable bed and sleep till Connie or Lonnie kicked her awake. Even as she longed for sleep though Tara knew that she had a few things more to do, she had made copies of the coded messages sent before she'd gotten the key and she knew that those messages needed to be sent off as soon as she could manage.

Blinking fatigue out of her eyes Tara laid the messages and the key out on her floor, no desk for her, and started decrypting. Almost immediately she felt her fatigue drain away, it was clear from the first message she decoded that the Drakanadians were up to something big. From the next few messages it became clear that they had decided punching through the Rockwall Kingdom was a losing proposition and they had decided to repeat their mass landings from the First Invasion. The only thing she couldn't determine was where the invasion would come. Even within the code the Drakanadians didn't refer to their target by name, merely as 'AF' and nothing in the messages gave any indication where that might be. Still she was far from a military genius and the generals of the Three Kingdoms might be able to figure out where the Drakanadians were invading. She wrote up a note summarizing everything she had figured out and once again set out from her cell.

Taking almost nonsensical caution against being seen Tara made her way to the small stable yard where the barrel with the hollow lid was that she dropped her messages in. Placing the message in the slot Tara looked up at the stars before making her way back inside to make a futile effort at catching up on all the sleep she had missed.

Not thirty second later Frugal Lucre walked into the very same stable yard from the opposite door. Glancing about the yard he saw nothing out of the ordinary. One of the cooks up early to prepare breakfast had backed up the servant girl's claims about the princesses but he still had a suspicious feeling about her and what she had been doing.

**-Rockwall Mountains, south of Yamanouchi-**

It wasn't that Bonnie was ungrateful to the people of Yamanouchi; she did owe her life to them after all. It was just that she wasn't used to such utilitarian and purpose driven clothes and her first experience wearing such things was simply one more in an all too long list of complaints she had for whoever was running the universe about the last several weeks. She wasn't normally one for useless ostentation and finery in her clothes, well not nearly as bad as her sisters in any case, and she'd worn fairly plain clothes when she and Tara had snuck out of the castle when they were younger. Even then though they had been clothes meant for everyday wear, now she found herself with her coat replaced by a suit of leather armor.

She had stared at the armor when Sensei had presented it to her that morning as she and Ron set out for Middleton but couldn't bring herself to argue with the old man and merely accepted the gift with a quiet thanks. The thought to simply take the thing off after leaving Yamanouchi had crossed her mind more than once but Ron was similarly attired and was showing no signs of irritation. Perhaps it was childish on her part but Bonnie refused to complain about the armor before he did.

"You doing okay back there," Bonnie snapped her head up to see Ron looking over his shoulder at her.

"Yes," Bonnie snapped, "Just don't slow down I want to get to Middleton as soon as we can."

"We're making plenty good time," Ron seemed much harder to rile up after their stay at Yamanouchi, "and you really don't need the armor so close to Yamanouchi so you can take it off if it's bothering you that much. Armor can be pretty irritating when you haven't worn it much before."

"What!" Bonnie gaped, "I… how did you… why do I even have to wear this stupid thing? It's uncomfortable, hot, and I don't see how it does anything for me. I swear, even after wearing the same two dresses for two months hiding in that town and then walking through all those mountains they never got even close to this bad."

"Just because we're in the Three Kingdoms now doesn't mean the Drakanadians aren't still looking for you." Ron said, "and princesses in story books might have some sort of plot armor that keeps the villains from touching them but this is the real world. After today it's probably better safe than sorry with the armor but for now we're close enough to Yamanouchi that even if the Drakanadians tried something I really don't think they'd ever get close to you."

"Uh-huh," Ron's pet mole rat stuck its head out of his pack to agree with him. Ron had tried to introduce Bonnie to Rufus during their stay at Yamanouchi but despite her best efforts she hadn't yet come to terms with the hairless rodent.

"And your hero armor did so well when Killigan almost took your arm off," Bonnie couldn't hold that one bit of snark in.

"It did well enough for you to heal me," Ron shrugged his shoulders, "and of all the 'heroes' I've ever known half of what does it for them in the end is pure luck."

"I guess you're right there," Bonnie schooled her face to pure innocence, "you were lucky enough to meet someone who can make you useful."

"Huh boy," Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pack one last time.

Ron walked off into the woods and left the last light of the campfire behind him. He probably didn't need to patrol this close to Yamanouchi but it had become habit by now and he had meant it when he told Bonnie better safe than sorry.

About halfway through his loop Ron stopped, something around him wasn't right. Loosening the Lotus Blade in its sheath he moved into the deeper shadows away from the moonlight and started stalking whatever was out there.

"Stay yourself Ron Stoppable," a voice called from the shadows, "we are friendly."

Out of a stand of trees walked a Yamanouchi graduate with a very distinctive hairstyle, "Hello Hirotaka," Ron said.

"Student," Hirotaka called towards the shadows Ron had been stalking, "you were discovered. Return to the school and meditate on this."

One of the shadows separated from the rest and bowed to the two men before silently moving off in the night back up towards the school.

"The princess is well protected by your diligence," Hirotaka turned to face Ron, "but as you can see we have taken steps to ensure your protection at least for tonight. We cannot follow further or our numbers might draw attention but you can return to your camp."

"Thanks man," Ron slid the Lotus Blade back fully into its sheath, "I've never actually seen any evidence the Drakanadians followed us into the mountains but I don't know that they haven't either so take care of yourselves."

"I appreciate your concern," Hirotaka started moving back into the shadows, "we also have seen no evidence you are being followed but like you we will protect the princess with our lives."

Alone again in the night Ron started making his way back towards camp. Even though he could hardly call himself thrilled with her company Bonnie had been much more tolerable of late and with Rufus along he thought that from here on out if he didn't focus too much on why he was where he was the trip might even approach enjoyable.

Nearing the campfire Ron started hearing noises that didn't sound like what should come from a camp where one person and one naked mole rat were supposed to be sleeping. Fearing the worst Ron edged the Lotus Blade out and started silently darting from one group of shadows to the next ever closer to the fire. Finally close enough to clearly see the camp Ron saw that rather than disaster Bonnie was sitting next to the fire sobbing not quite silently into her knees. Hesitating for a few seconds Ron put the Lotus Blade away and walked into the camp.

"So I doubt I'm your first choice to spill to but I'm here and you look like you really have some baggage."

Bonnie jerked up and wiped her face before springing to her feet with an utterly unreadable face. "What are you doing back here? I thought you were all we can't let our guard down just because we're in the Three Kingdoms now."

"Yeah," Ron hung towards the edge of their camp not exactly how to approach this, "but there are plenty of people from Yamanouchi out tonight making sure we're safe so they said I could come back here and get some sleep. But I guess sleep is going to have to wait."

"Oh don't you try to pity me," Bonnie stormed up to him, "you can't possibly imagine what I've been through in the last two months. I'm holding together when it counts so let's just go to sleep so we can get an early start tomorrow."

"Not that I wanna argue or anything," Ron said, "but I actually think I have a better idea of what you're going through than you think."

"Really?" Bonnie walked back to the fire and sat down, "You're going to tell me that both your parents were murdered, your best friend is dead or being horribly tortured, and the people you're supposed to look after are getting almost as bad as your best friend at the hands of the Drakanadians? I haven't had a good laugh in awhile so I'm really waiting to hear this."

"Well," Ron walked over to the other side of the fire and sat down, "I don't actually know how my parents died or even if they're dead for that matter but no one has seen them since I was two. Kim is still alive and fine last I knew but my best friend at Yamanouchi was a girl named Yori. We arrived at about the same time and it wasn't long before we were friends. After graduation we went on pretty much every mission together because we made a really good team. Just before all this started we were sent into Drakanada to see if they really were planning to invade. I made it back, Yori didn't. And I don't have a kingdom to look out for like you do but the people at Yamanouchi are like family to me and every one who can is being sent out into danger again and again and I know for a fact they're not all coming back."

Bonnie stared at him, "Tara always told me to be careful what I wished for because I just might get it. I never really paid attention to that before now. I guess I owe you an apology."

"It's okay," Ron said, "we know what we're getting into at Yamanouchi. Yori and I always had the talk about what we'd do if one of us didn't come back before every mission. And anyways you've had all this piled on you a lot quicker than I ever did."

"Still, I've just been so stressed out and on a short fuse and scared since all this happened that I'm taking it out on the whole world. And you've pretty much been the only person around the whole time so you're getting way more than your share."

"Really I don't blame you. I probably would have just given up long ago if I'd had to go through everything you've been put through in the last few months. And since I'm in on the secret I don't mind being your punching bag when you need to blow off some steam. I'm a big strong guy like you said and I can take it. And if you could ever stop being freaked out by him I'm sure Rufus could help too."

"Speaking of your little… thing, where is he? I thought with all the noise we've been making they can hear us in Lowerton."

"Ah, Rufus is a pretty heavy sleeper," Ron scratched at the back of his neck, "Unless someone has cheese around he won't wake up till morning."

As if by magic the very mention of that divine ambrosia brought Rufus from deepest slumber to the height of awareness and darting out of Ron's pack where he had been sleeping. Upon seeing only Ron and Bonnie sitting by the fire and so cruelly deprived of his most favorite thing in the world Rufus blew a raspberry at the two of them and fatigue returned crawled back into Ron's pack to return to dreams of a moon made of cheese.

Perhaps with all the stress they were under and the grim topics they had so recently visited Rufus' brief sojourn had seemed the most hilarious thing in the world to them and they both collapsed in laughter till tears ran down their cheeks and sleep eventually took them both.

AN: See, see, that first chapter was not just a fluke I am indeed in it to write this! There are a lot of things this chapter sets up to fall into place so if the slow pace is beginning to wear it shouldn't be that many more chapters before things start happening. Two asides, first to anyone who grates reading the encyclopedia entries at the start of each chapter I should have said long ago that they're not necessary for the plot. It's just a way to show off the background work. Second an internet cookie to whoever can first figure out what real historical event 'AF' is referring to. Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and you come back same time same place next week for the next one.


	15. Friendly Conversation

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: This is not the disclaimer you're looking for. *waves hand mysteriously*

Chapter Fourteen: Friendly Conversation

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XII, subject Lowerton –

Though sometimes looked down upon as the smallest component of the Three Kingdoms the once kingdom and city of Lowerton are nevertheless an integral part of our modern society. The cities of Upperton and Middleton are both located on the broad plain that defines most geography south of the Rockwall Mountains. The city of Lowerton by contrast is located in the foothills of that great mountain range and it is believed that it was founded as a trade stop for parties entering and leaving the mountain passes. The heavily wooded terrain around the city today provides the vast majority of lumber for the Three Kingdoms but in the pre-unification era this combined with generally rugged terrain served to slow the expansion of political control outwards from Lowerton. As a result the kingdom of Middleton laid claim to the whole of the western coast and split the eastern coast with the kingdom of Upperton. Following unification Lowerton emerged as a great industrial center, before the First Invasion weapons were in low demand but several forges in Lowerton operated to produce some few highly decorated weapons for various ceremonial purposes. This expertise would be exported and expanded greatly during the First Invasion.

Lowerton is most notable as the site of the Battle of Lowerton, one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the First Invasion. Unable by approximately the tenth year of the war to muster the strength for a general offensive the Drakanadian high command settled on a plan to instead split the allied kingdoms. Gathering a great horde of men and beasts they struck deep towards the passes to the Rockwall Mountains, their aim being to eliminate Lowerton as a military concern and cut off the Rockwall Kingdom. With the kingdom of Upperton largely occupied or repeatedly fought over and the city itself under a twenty five year siege had this succeeded it would have left Middleton and the Rockwall Kingdom the only powers in the field against the Drakanadians and those two kingdoms separated. However the armies of Lowerton used the mountains and wooded terrain to slow the Drakanadians and steadily bleed their strength. Despite all this the Drakanadians eventually reached the city of Lowerton and quickly breached its walls in several places. The main battle began near the end of summer and quickly degenerated into a street by street building by building bloodbath. Despite tenacious resistance, by a month before the winter solstice the Drakanadians had taken all but a few remaining pockets of the city. Unbeknownst to them however the Allies had built up an army of their own hidden in the hills to the west and north of Lowerton. At this moment of seeming Drakanadian triumph the Allies struck. Within a week of the offensive, Operation Neptune, the Drakanadian army was itself besieged and eventually forced to surrender.

The damage wrought to the city of Lowerton was nearly incalculable, nearly five hundred years after the battle the death toll is still unknown but conservative estimates place total casualties near two hundred thousand not counting the rest of the campaign and nearby but unrelated battles. Following the war and Integration the city of Lowerton was rebuilt. Today it is the headquarters of the Royal Forge and Metalworking Corps as well as home to a great many merchant houses.

**-Rockwall Kingdom-**

"So do you think they made it?" Felix looked up from the ale he was nursing to see Brick walking up to his table at the town tavern with his own mug in hand.

"Who made it?" Felix asked, "There are a lot of people going a lot of places these days."

"Yeah," Brick said, "but I think you know who I'm talking about."

"I think I have a good idea," Felix held his mug halfway to his mouth, "I also think talking about that in a place like this where anyone can hear us is a bad idea."

"Relax," Brick pulled out a chair and sat down, "I've made sure that all the people who can hear us are people we know. You're right that it's risky to talk in public but the Drakanadians have a close watch on us and it would make them suspicious if we kept avoiding places where people could hear us. It might make it look like we have secrets we don't want them finding out and I'd rather not find out first-hand what they do to people like that."

"Good point," Felix admitted, "well if we're talking about the princess I don't know if they've made it yet. About all I am sure about is that the Drakanadians don't have her, if they did they would be shouting it as loud as they can before hauling her back to the capital to be executed."

"Yeah that's about what I think," Brick looked up from his ale, "I'm just worried that even if the Drakanadians didn't kill them the mountains just might. Her highness is hardly one of those nobles who falls apart outside castle walls and the presence of her servants. But there are soldiers in the army who are trained for mountain warfare and I used to talk with some of them before the invasion. I think most of them would consider trying to cross the mountains like that suicide. I get that this is summer and it's the best time to try but there's still plenty of things that can kill you up there."

"Well that guy from the Three Kingdoms who got her out of here seemed to know what he was doing," Felix said, "and from what I gather he knew some people who could help them. So here's to hoping that they don't have to cross half the Rockwall Mountains with no help."

"I'll toast to that," Brick raised his mug, "there's one other thing I'm worried about. It's taken awhile to go through various hands and we'll pass it on as soon as we can but we finally got a message from our source inside the castle."

"Now there's a guy I'll toast to," Felix raised his mug for another toast, "we're taking chances here smuggling intelligence but that guy is just crazy getting information out of the castle."

"For all you know that guy is some cute blonde girl," Brick laughed.

"Fifty-fifty shot," Felix shrugged his shoulders, "so what does that message say anyways?"

"Not much," Brick said, "it takes awhile to get messages out of the castle and this far down the chain so for all I know there's a few more on the way. Anyways it at least explains why we haven't gotten many messages the last few weeks. The Drakanadians don't know who our source is but they know someone is smuggling intelligence out so they've started coding messages. Our source is going to try to get the key but he's letting us know it could take awhile and that of course he might get caught."

"Well confusion to the Drakanadians in any case," Felix took a pull of his ale, "as long as we're sharing I've heard soldiers from the occupying garrison talking about how few troops are coming to the front lately. It seems like they're only sending up enough to keep their numbers steady and stop any attacks the Three Kingdoms puts in."

"I've heard the same thing," Brick scratched at his scalp, "I know we're supposed to have more people than the Drakanadians but it took us twenty five years to wear them down last time and I can't imagine they've run out of troops this time after what, ten weeks?"

"Which makes me wonder just where all those extra soldiers are and what they're doing there?" Felix said, "If they're sending everything in code now it probably means they're cooking something up that they don't want us to find out about."

"And that can't be good for us," Brick drained the last of his ale, "I wonder if we should send something along with this pointing that out."

"I hope the people at the end of this chain are putting all that together," Felix stared down at the last bits of his ale, "but it can't hurt to tack something on pointing that out."

**-Upperton-**

"So is this how people greet you wherever you go?"

Josh was used to hobnobbing with village mayors and councils. Before the war he'd made sure to tour his parent's lands extensively between working on his art. But compared to the lavish parade the city of Upperton was throwing for Princess Kim's arrival the most opulent greeting he'd ever received was nothing by comparison. Not that any village had ever thrown a particularly lavish greeting, the village council coming out to the edge of town to greet arrivals was unusual.

"Unfortunately," Kim had to almost shout for him to hear standing next to her on the reviewing stand, "it's kind of cool the first few times they do it. Makes you feel really important and all. Then you realize how much it costs, how much of your day it takes up, and that it's just kinda stupid. All this pomp for one person, I really don't think I'm all that."

"Well I'm not going to fall for that," Josh nearly shouted, "I do think it's a bit much but remember that Upperton, city and kingdom, took the brunt of the First Invasion. I guess it feels to most of the people in the city that your being here and all these soldiers means that the government isn't going to let that happen again."

"I hope they don't get mad when all the troops leave," Josh could barely hear Kim's laughter over the crowd, "but by then they should figure out where all the troops are going and with a little luck we've outrun any Drakanadian spies sending the message that they're about to get a big surprise on their shores."

"If even a few of all those people we saw on the road between Middleton and Upperton are Drakanadian spies or infiltrators they can't help but know that we've got at least an army, probably two in the city."

"That's why in-between training to invade Drakanada all our soldiers are supposed to be building defensive works." Kim said, "Make their spies think that we're trying to stop any invasions they might be thinking about not planning our own. With all your experience with trenches and defensive works I'll be sending you to make sure that any Drakanadians seeing them take them for the real thing."

"You're sure you don't want to have your guard, Eric was his name I think, do it? After guarding an empty procession he'd probably want to do something useful for you."

"I thought about it," Kim said while making an almost routine wave to the crowd, "but I think if he's like most guards he'd rather make sure that I wasn't really killed during our trip here and that I'm not some puppet you hauled up to fool everyone."

"Oh no you've figured out my evil plan," Josh made his voice as flat as possible, "You're really sure you don't want to let him do it?"

"Yeah," Kim waved off his concern, "I think after sharing the trip from Middleton to here I can trust you to take a horse around the nearby coast and make sure the Drakanadians can't catch us completely off guard."

"You wouldn't have sent me off alone before the trip," Josh could speak a bit less loudly as the last military units passed by the stand.

"Of course not," Kim said matter of factly, "I know that government is a lot better than it was even a few generations ago but there are still far too many courtiers who will make a report based more on what they think I want to hear than what I need to hear. I don't think you will after spending all that time together and you know that if you do then you'll find out exactly how many kinds of martial arts I know."

"I'll take your word for it," Josh said, "how soon do you want me to head on out?"

"You're a major; you can go to the royal stables and get a horse as soon as the parade is through. Plus you'll be stuck sitting in meeting after meeting as my adjutant so by the time this is all over I think you'll be thanking me for getting you out of any part of it I can."

Kim didn't need to have some sort of magic powers to know that Josh was very grateful he'd taken her offer to get away from the politicking of war for a few hours. A brief look at his face as she looked over for confirmation at some figures from the report he'd drawn up was more than enough confirmation for her.

Her problem now was that she desperately wanted a few hours off but knew that wouldn't come until she could snatch a few hours of sleep. She'd gone from the parade grounds straight into meetings and the past several days had been calming down one turf war after another. Every general there was nearly salivating that their name might go down in history as leading the greatest invasion ever but there were three standouts working together that she'd taken in her mind to calling Team Impossible.

"General Demond," it took all her effort to speak in a polite tone, "the whole purpose of building these defensive works the way they were planned was to fool any Drakanadian spies. In order to do that they have to at least have enough function to make someone looking from far away think that they're real works. You couldn't hold back a mob of children who didn't get their birthday candy with these works. I understand that it would be impractical in terms of training our invasion force to build a full set of defensive works. But once we invade the Drakanadians _will_ launch a vigorous counterattack and our force will need to have at least the basics of building and holding defensive works."

"Your highness," Demond spoke in a tone Kim recognized as one that officers used when they disagreed with their superiors but didn't think they could come right out and say so, "the Drakanadians so far have been putting everything they have into breaking through our lines in the Rockwall Kingdom. If we move fast enough we can land a crippling blow to their war effort before they can react. That goes double if they can't move many troops from the Rockwall Kingdom because it would leave their lines on that front undefended."

"General you've read the same intelligence reports I have," Kim gestured to the copies of intelligence from the resistance, "the Drakanadians aren't putting nearly as much into the Rockwall Kingdom as they were even a few weeks ago. They clearly know something is out of the ordinary here and I'm certain they're building up a reaction force that can come down on us wherever we do invade. But with our population advantage we can land and reinforce while we attack in the Rockwall Kingdom and they can't react as well as we can to two fronts. But if we can't defend our landing against that first counterattack this war will go back to being one front and our numerical and industrial advantages are worth far less."

"Princess Kimberly," this time it was General Cranstin who spoke, "with all due respect to the major's report we disagree with his assessment of our works. Each of us has been in service to the Kingdom for over twenty years, the major has only actively served since the war started."

"And from when the war started until he became my adjutant Major Mankey was serving in the trenches," Kim said, "he has more practical experience with what works and what doesn't in a trench system than all of us combined. So as much as I appreciate your service, and believe me gentlemen I do, I'm inclined to believe the report that comes from someone with practical experience. I don't want to make this an order but unless you can convince me this intelligence says something other than the Drakanadians are building up to repel our invasion I have to insist that our soldiers are properly trained. And if that means less attack training I've already said why I'm convinced this defensive training will help us win the war faster."

Not even waiting for their grumbled acknowledgement of her order Kim swept the papers in front of her into a leather folder and just short of stormed out of the room.

"So what do you think Eric?" Kim asked her guard as they walked through the halls of Upperton's governors' complex.

"About what ma'am?" He replied.

"The illustrious general's obsession with attacking," Kim said, "I figure you're in the military and since you're my guard you can feel free to speak freely."

"If I can speak freely then I agree with the generals ma'am." Eric fingered a loose thread on his tunic, "I admit I don't have the time in the trenches that Major Mankey does but if the Drakanadians really are building up to defeat any invasion we mount then it seems to me like the more time we give them to get ready the harder it is for us. If they couldn't keep their numbers in the Rockwall Kingdom while building that up I'd say differently but I think that right now time isn't on our side."

"You definitely know how to speak better than the generals," Kim paused outside the door to her rooms, "but I'm still not hearing anything that makes me think I'm wrong. The more the Drakanadians build up in their own territory the less they're putting into the Rockwall Kingdom and even if it makes it harder to invade them it definitely makes it easier to push them out of the Rockwall Kingdom. But thanks for not being a yes-man, that's definitely what I'm looking for in people who work for me."

Kim stepped into her rooms not looking back. Had she looked back she would have seen a rather disturbing scowl on Eric's face as he fingered the handle of his sword in its scabbard.

AN: No one has figured out what 'AF' is referring to yet. And just to compound your misery 'Operation Neptune' is another blatant historical rip-off. This chapter didn't need nearly so many words to get everything in it across so hopefully you enjoy the shorter slog through the depths of my twisted mind. And I really hope there isn't anyone into Kim Possible enough to read this who is surprised by Eric's actions at the very end. But now I'll spend several chapters making you gnash your teeth wondering what comes next. Yes I am a horrible person. Until next time!


	16. Home Sweet Home

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: This is not the disclaimer you're looking for. *waves hand mysteriously*

Chapter Fifteen: Home Sweet Home

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XXI, subject Upperton –

Home to the Royal Naval Academy as well as the Royal Shipyards Upperton is along with the city of Middleton one of the two largest consumers of timber in the known world. Additionally the University of Upperton, oldest known to exist, has produced some of the greatest scholars and engineers of the Three Kingdoms. Citizens of Upperton take great pride in feeling a microcosm of the balance between industrial and intellectual pursuits that defines the Three Kingdoms. Consistently though it is the city and kingdom's naval tradition that has brought a collective identity to the people. While there are naval support facilities in every large town on the coast these facilities are always larger and better staffed along the Upperton coast. This is in no small part due to Upperton being the fleet's home port. But where the original people of Lowerton took to hunting to feed themselves and the peoples of Middleton undertook ranching to feed themselves the people of Upperton clustered around the coast and took to fishing. Roughly a hundred and fifty years after the First Invasion it was the descendants of this tradition who first circumnavigated the globe. Setting out from the city of Upperton they charted numerous previously unexplored islands seeking to replenish their supplies during a voyage lasting a few weeks short of three years. At the completion of their voyage they came upon the western coast of Middleton at a small mining village, a holiday still celebrated in that village to this day.

The Kingdom of Upperton suffered the most damage in all measures during the First Invasion. Drakanadian troops landed without warning and began a campaign of pillage and conquest that lasted a quarter of a century. In other areas of the Three Kingdoms the effects of the war were shorter felt but being their first point of invasion the Drakanadians were deepest entrenched in Upperton and were not driven out till the very end of the war. The cost of that campaign convinced the victorious allies that invading Drakanada itself would be far too costly even if success could be achieved. Though the city itself was never occupied it was besieged from nearly the end of the war till a few weeks shy of its end. Supplying the second largest city in the Three Kingdoms was a matter of constant concern throughout the war. Most outside supplies and soldiers came from the sea, naval officers from Upperton who had escaped during the initial invasion worked with and built up a navy that brought in supplies and constantly hampered Drakanadian reinforcements throughout the war. The walls of Upperton at the beginning of the war were relics of a thought bygone age and were expected by none to serve as a guard against invasion. The walls were rebuilt over the course of the war using exclusively rubble from buildings destroyed in the siege. This did not stop several battles from raging throughout portions of the city. Over the course of the war it is estimated that somewhere between four and five hundred thousand people died in the siege and related battles.

Towards the end of the war the Drakanadians began using in their armies a generation of children in Upperton who had grown up under occupation and hence been subject to indoctrination at the hands of the Drakanadians. It is believed that these people with an indigenous knowledge of the culture and geography of the Three Kingdoms formed the nucleus of the modern Drakanadian spy network.

**-Middleton-**

Bonnie jerked awake at the light touch the servant used to wake her up. Exhausted as she was and finally sleeping in a real bed as opposed to the ground she had slept far deeper than the past few weeks. The sheets and sheer size of the bed kept her from leaping onto the carpets covering the floor or into the corner of a bed stand but it still took her several seconds to untangle herself from the linen prison she had made for herself.

"Apologies your highness," the servant said, "but it's two hours past breakfast and you hadn't woken up."

"It's okay," Bonnie rubbed sleep from her eyes, "if you've already drawn a bath I can get myself ready for the day."

Normally Bonnie was an early riser and rarely spent much time savoring the luxuries of her station in life. But after such a rude uprooting from that lifestyle she had come by a new and she thought much more realistic appreciation of life's little luxuries. To that end she luxuriated in the bathtub until the water was lukewarm before putting on a clean dress. Clean clothes being another of those luxuries she had enjoyed reacquainting herself with over the last several days.

At last feeling more human than undead she decided to venture out for some food to tide her over till lunch. Walking to the door she opened it to find a familiar face on the other side hand raised about to knock.

-Three days ago-

"Welcome to Middleton," Ron waved his hand grandiosely, "four weeks, a mountain range, and several death defying acts later I give you the greatest city on the planet."

"Biggest city that's for sure," Bonnie said atop her horse with considerably less enthusiasm, "but I don't exactly agree about greatest city."

"You're just being sour," Ron refused to rise to her bait, "how can you be in a bad mood? It should have taken us another three weeks once we got out of the Rockwall Mountains to get here but once we got these horses we did it in one week. That's only a month from when I rescued you to here, not a month and a half. You and all your go, go, go should be sunshine and happiness right now. And things actually went right for us on our way here, that's got to count for something."

About a week after leaving Yamanouchi they had come out of the Rockwall Mountains in eastern Lowerton. Ron and Bonnie agreed on a cover story of being simple refugees who had fled from the Rockwall Kingdom to escape the occupation in order to avoid notice and set off south again. Their first sign of civilization had been a small logging camp working well off the beaten path. They had briefly worried that the rather rough team of loggers might try to take advantage of two seeming refugees fleeing south from the war. Some fast talking from Bonnie and the ease with which Ron wore the Lotus Blade had convinced the loggers that perhaps this was one party of travelers best sent on their way. Later that day they had come across a royal supply depot and a bit of planning from the start of Ron's odyssey had paid off. A royal writ commanding aid to the bearer had netted them a pair of horses and supplies to last them to Middleton. From there they had made steady progress using the roads and royal post system. A network of small outposts located a day's ride apart let them ride their horses much harder than they otherwise would have dared. Such ragtag travelers with a royal writ had raised a few eyebrows but with the war there were plenty of people headed away from the war with little more than the clothes on their back regardless of their previous station in life. With all the chaos around them they had slipped through without much notice and rode to Middleton.

"Fine," Bonnie grumbled, "we did make it here faster than walking would have gotten us here. Forgive me for not being thrilled at the circumstances of my visit."

"I guess you have a point," Ron admitted, "but hey, it's all uphill from here. Start getting things done, win the war, and not worry about this for another five hundred years."

"I hope you're right," Bonnie said, "now let's go."

Two more weary travelers on horseback attracted little notice at the city gates. Even had Ron not known the major and plenty of minor streets of the city it would have been hard to miss the palace on the hill at the center of the city. Now a landmark, in days long gone that hill had provided defense for the castle the palace had once been. With a practiced eye Bonnie gauged the mood of the people she rode by on the street. They were nervous certainly and she suspected a few months prior there would have been far more men of military age in the city than there were now. But where the people in the Rockwall Kingdom had looked north with fear most every day of their life it was obvious to Bonnie that a real and imminent threat of Drakanadian soldiers invading new concept to the citizens of the Three Kingdoms.

The guards at the city gates had been there more for crowd control than any real job at all related to security. The guards at the palace gates had armor and spears that while decorative looked so in a way that clearly said the decorations would in no way impede their using their spears to deadly effect on anyone trying to get into the palace with less than good intent. Along with their far more business like demeanor compared to their city gate counterparts the palace guards seemed entirely unwilling to let in two travelers who were dirty, ragged, and generally everything people who normally had business with the palace were not.

"Now look here Mr. Stoppable," the guard said in a voice all but dripping with scorn, "I don't care that you have a royal writ. Plenty of people carrying those things are dying or losing them these days and I don't know where you came across that. But I do that you are not the sort of person who has business here and that if you don't turn around very soon you'll be going into the palace feet first for your own funeral."

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I'm working for the King and I'm here with princess Bonnie of the Rockwall Kingdom," Ron was just short of fed up with how obsessed with his own power this guard was, "Did you really think coming halfway across the continent with the Drakanadians after us we were going to shout it out to everyone who we were and that we could pack a few chests of clothes along with us?"

"I don't even think she's still alive," the guard spoke as if he were royalty himself, "and every noble I've seen, and I've seen a lot, means that I'm sure no princess would ever let herself or anyone get that dirty. And I've spent too much time with you already, so if you don't butt off I'm gonna show you the butt of my spear and then the tip."

Clearly this guard had never done duty at the palace before. If he had he would have seen Kim dragging Ron in at all hours of the night covered in grime and mud from one of her excursions. As close as he was to finishing his mission Ron dearly wanted to level this guard and get into the palace. But he could sneak himself and Bonnie in easily enough and he didn't want to hurt a guard who was just doing his job, even if being a jerk about it.

"What's going on here?" Ron turned back to the gates to see a familiar person in naval uniform.

"It's nothing lieutenant commander," the guard's voice completely changed when confronted with someone he knew to be a superior, "just keeping the riffraff out of the palace."

"You shouldn't refer to citizens like that guardsman," Will Du was his normal business like self, "and what exactly were these two doing that made you so suspicious?"

"Well this 'citizen,'" Ron could hear the quotes of disdain the guard used, "claims he has princess Bonnie of the Rockwall Kingdom with him. He expects us to believe that he just walked right up to the palace with the most wanted person in the world looking like that. Only reason I didn't skewer him right off is that he's got a royal writ, but too many of those are getting lost or stolen with the war on for me to believe him."

Will Du looked at Ron for some time before speaking, "you look familiar, come with me and we'll get this all sorted out."

"Sir," the guard began to protest.

"Don't worry," Will Du said, "I'll take care of this. You've done your duty. If it turns out they're spies or saboteurs it will be on me."

The three of them walked into the palace through a small courtyard. Ron and Bonnie tied their horses at some available tethers and Will Du motioned for some liveried servants to come and take their horses to the stables. Ron's first impression of the palace was that there were even more people in uniform running around than there had been when he'd left to rescue Bonnie all those weeks ago. The palace itself looked much the same, walls covered with wood panels and tapestries where the stone walls remained, paintings and sculpture littered the walls where they weren't windowed to let in light. But despite that Ron noticed that the people of the palace gave it a different feel than he'd noticed when he left for the Rockwall Kingdom. Then the war had been something new, now after two and a half months the shock had worn off and the reality of a possibly drawn out and bloody struggle with the Drakanadians seemed to have seeped into the bearing of everyone. Everyone except Will Du that was who seemed just as calm and business like as the last time Ron had seen him off the Drakanadian coast.

"I'll take you two by the kitchens before sitting you down for a long talk," Will Du never turned as he spoke, "if you are who you say you are then consider it a reward. If you're spies then don't go out saying I didn't give you a last meal."

"Ron?" Ron turned to see Kim's mom looking at him from down a hallway intersection before she darted the distance to envelop him in a motherly hug, "it's so good to see you! We were so worried that you might not make it back."

"You know these people ma'am?" Will Du looked imperturbable as ever despite the queen of the Three Kingdoms hugging a person covered in dirt right off the streets.

Mrs. Possible seemed only then to notice Will Du, quite possible since he so rarely went out of his way to be noticed, "of course I do. Ron here is one of Kim's oldest friends. I'll make sure they get rooms and a hot meal."

"Yes ma'am," Will Du saluted crisply before rushing off to whatever he was doing before encountering Ron and Bonnie.

Mrs. Possible looked back at the two weary travelers, "It is great to have you back Ron. With the war on we'll take any good news we can get. Speaking of good news I take it that this is princess Bonnie with you."

"Yeah," Ron said, "it's great to be back. We barely paused to catch our breath at Yamanouchi, I think a few real nights of sleep and some hot meals will go a long way towards making us useful again."

"Not to be rude or anything," Bonnie interrupted in a surprisingly polite voice, "but I'd really like to start talking about how we can get the Drakanadians out of my country as soon as possible."

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few days," Mrs. Possible said as the three of them started walking again, "I'm far better at medicine than military strategy. Kim is quite the military mind but she's off in Upperton helping prepare our attack force up there and James is out of the city visiting soldiers who are about to head up into the Rockwall Kingdom. We'll send a messenger right away but it will still take a few days for him to get back."

"We can't meet him halfway or something?" Bonnie said, "I really do want to start doing something as soon as I can."

"I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through," Mrs. Possible put a hand on Bonnie's shoulder, "but right now you're exhausted, mentally as well as physically. If you collapse or are too tired to think clearly you won't do your people any good. So use these next few days to rest up and come up with some ideas for exactly how you can help your people. I don't exactly think it would do much good if you put on a suit of armor and grabbed a sword."

"Okay," Bonnie sighed, "can we eat first though, I'm sick and tired of bread, dried nuts, and even dryer meat."

"I'm all for eating," Ron said, "poor Rufus hasn't had a bite of cheese since we left Yamanouchi. He must be in withdrawal."

"Uh huh," Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pack and ran a paw down his face to further evidence his misery.

"Don't worry," Mrs. Possible smiled, "I think there's enough cheese in the palace for everyone."

-Three days later-

Ron's naked mole rat waved at Bonnie as she looked at the two standing outside her doorway, Ron himself gaped at her for a few seconds before lowering his hand.

"So is there a reason you're standing outside my room?" Bonnie asked, "it's been long enough that I'm not falling over myself tired and I was going to make myself useful at the city hospital unless there's something else I need to be doing."

"Actually yeah," Ron said, "Kim's dad really hurried back. He's washing off travel dust right now but by the time I get you to the sitting room he'll probably be ready for you."

Bonnie practically shoved him aside, "let's go then."

AN: Apologies for yet another short chapter. There was a family emergency that cut into writing time and will likely cut into it next week as well. All the essential plot points are here though so don't think I'm letting the lot of you off easy. Since no one could get my historical references I'll just keep the cookie to myself. AF was the Japanese code for Midway and Operation Neptune is a blatant rip-off of Operation Uranus at the Battle of Stalingrad. Now you can say that reading fan fiction is really a learning experience. With luck same time same place next week, otherwise I'll see you in two weeks time.


	17. Game On

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible. So say we all!

Chapter Sixteen: Game On

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIII, subject Middleton –

Any citizen of Middleton when asked to describe their city will not hesitate to call it the greatest in the world. Understandably citizens outside of Middleton will dispute this. They cannot however dispute that it is the largest and most populous city in the known world. For completeness we must note that population figures are unknown for Drakanada but what information we have indicates the Three Kingdoms has a larger population than its neighbor so it seems likely that there are no larger cities there. Middleton is the largest administrative center in the Three Kingdoms as well as the largest commercial hub. Also notable is Middleton's equestrian tradition. Surrounded as it is by rolling plains with plentiful drainage from the Rockwall Mountains the territory surrounding Middleton supports the tens of thousands of horses needed for everyday life. Ranches surrounding the city raise horses ranging from draft animals to war horses and everything in between. One should not think of Middleton's inhabitants as country folk by any means. While the University of Upperton may be the oldest in the world Middleton boasts more universities than Upperton and Lowerton combined. These universities offer courses in almost any subject imaginable and advances in every facet of life have flowed from the brilliant minds in these hallowed halls.

While never invaded as such during the First Invasion the Kingdom of Middleton felt its effects just as acutely as its neighbors. With large parts of the Kingdoms of Upperton and Lowerton occupied or otherwise rendered useless the Kingdom of Middleton bore a large portion of fighting the war. While exact figures are not available best estimates give a figure for Middleton of nearly as many deaths as the Kingdom of Upperton. In terms of purely military casualties Middleton suffered considerably more casualties than all the other allies due to its soldiers fighting in every campaign and theatre of the war. Following their defeat at Lowerton Drakanadian armies made one last effort to break into Middleton. Had this succeeded it would have isolated large numbers of allied troops and bought the Drakanadians crucial time to strengthen their position in Upperton and the parts of Lowerton they still held. These offensives resulted in a series of running battles over five weeks known as the Long Month. Drakanadian forces made initial progress but were pushed back by counter attacks and at the end had gained no territory and suffered appalling losses. Given the chaos we still do not know how many deaths there were on each side. Estimates place total casualties between one hundred twenty five and one hundred fifty thousand. The Long Month served primarily to establish that the point in the war had been reached where the Allies could make good their losses and continue to field ever increasing numbers while the Drakanadians found every battle sapping strength they could increasingly ill afford to lose.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

"Shego I am very disappointed, I expected that your minions could capture one wayward princess in the time it took her to cross half the world!"

"Yeah one princess in the most rugged terrain on the planet who moves surprisingly fast. Oh and did I forget to mention that she had one of those Yamanouchi ninja people with her? Or did you miss it when they dragged Killigan's body back here?"

The Emperor of Drakanada and his creepy henchwoman scared Tara to no end. Though prone to childish flights of fancy at times the blue skinned emperor had moments like this of chilling clarity. And only slightly beneath her sarcastic veneer Tara believed the green skinned woman was more than a little psychotic. It was probably learning to school her face to keep that terror in check that let her restrain herself upon hearing that Bonnie had against all odds made it to Middleton.

"Yet I seem to recall disposing of two of those 'ninja people' when they attempted to infiltrate the capital. Do you have any idea how far back this sets our plans Shego, do you?"

"You know I seem to recall helping come up with those plans so yeah I do think I know exactly how far it's going to set us back. Not to mention we're going to set their plans a lot further back than this. I mean seriously what can that snotty little brat even do? Make a few speeches, look helpless and forlorn at the plight of her people. It's not like a bunch of unarmed and untrained civilians can do anything to us. We just carry through on our threats to depopulate the kingdom and carry on winning the war."

"Wait," Connie jumped into the conversation, "you can't just kill everyone like that. I mean it's not like they're important or anything but then who would be left to serve us?"

"She's right," Lonnie said in a rare showing of sibling unity, "plus can't we just kill some prisoners from the Three Kingdoms or something, they're the ones we want to send the message to. And it's not like that bunch of useless incompetents would do something like kill the prisoners they have."

"Because stupid, we take few enough prisoners as it is. If we start killing prisoners like you want we're going to take even fewer."

"So why do we care?" Lonnie sniped, "Dead or prisoner they can't fight us."

"Are you really _that_ stupid? One if we don't take prisoners we can't torture them for information. Two in case you hadn't noticed there are more of them then there are of us. Even with the 'volunteers' we're taking from this kingdom there are more of them. So if they don't surrender it's more expensive when we win and that means we run out of people before they do. Do you really want to find out what happens if the Three Kingdoms wins? I don't think they're going to welcome you two back with open arms."

"Well it doesn't matter," Connie barely kept her terror at what might happen to her if the Drakanadians lost in check, "we can just kill some of our people. I'm sure if we line up ten or twenty people in every town and make them examples it will keep everyone else so scared they won't dare rise up."

"Ladies you're all missing the most important point, even if there is no rebellion we will have to pull troops from the front lines to keep the people terrified enough to not rise up. Now with so many of our resources going into building up for opening a second front our lines here are very thin. If we have to thin them out even more the Three Kingdoms will notice and there simply aren't enough Drakanadians to hold the Rockwall Kingdom if that happens."

"Okay then genius," Shego leaned her chair back on two legs, "little miss princess is going to get the people all riled up. And we can't get a jump and exterminate them because the bad guys will come running after us. So how do we keep this from being a lose-lose situation?"

"Easy Shego, we make sure the Three Kingdoms is too busy reacting to us to launch any attacks."

"And are you going to educate us lowly peons about just how we do that? You just said there's no way we can launch more than local attacks here in the Rockwall Kingdom. And the Three Kingdoms are digging trenches like it's going out of style around Upperton. That was a risky enough attack to begin with and if they're ready for it that's going to go south in a hurry."

"Ye of little faith, we happen to have a very well placed spy who reported that the Three Kingdoms aren't actually building defenses. They're planning to launch their own attack and they were hoping that by digging trenches it would look like all the soldiers were in Upperton to stop our attack. If we can keep disrupting their plans, and I assure you Shego that we can, their attention will be so focused there that we'll have time to pacify the Rockwall Kingdom as well as alter our plans to successfully take Upperton."

"I've got to hand it to you Drakken," Shego said, "you've actually thought this through. They've built their fleet so much out of Upperton that if we take the city they can't stop us bringing in as many reinforcements as we want."

"I told you the time was right to launch our invasion. And I'm feeling a bit peckish, I think the time is right for supper. You slave girl run to the kitchens and tell them to fetch us food."

Not wanting to draw any attention to herself Tara dropped a curtsey and hurried out of the room. As much as she wanted to dawdle and inconvenience her tormentors in even that little way she made quick time to the kitchens and sent several other servants back to the sitting room with food. Connie and Lonnie would be stuck in that meeting for some time and without them around to order her about Tara had that most precious thing in the world, free time. And she had a great number of things that needed writing and sending off as soon as she could manage.

It had taken longer than Tara would have preferred to compress everything she had heard down to two pages of paper but she was confident enough that Connie and Lonnie couldn't get out of the conference for some time yet. Folding one of the pages into the other she poked her head out of her room and began slipping down the hallways towards the barrel in the stable-yard with the hollowed out boards. When she walked into the courtyard the sun was still visible over the castle wall. She deliberately didn't know who took her messages or when but she felt confident leaving the papers in the barrel for some time. No one would think to look in the boards of an otherwise ordinary barrel unless they had a particular reason to.

She placed the papers into the slot and was starting to walk back into the castle to get food for herself when a voice stopped her. "Halt! Frugal Lucre knows you, what are you doing here?"

Tara suppressed a groan, the last thing she needed right now was a nosy guard. Digging deep into her generally cheerful personality she turned to face him, "I remember you, you were up ridiculously late one of those nights Connie and Lonnie had me up too. What are you doing here?"

"I am merely walking my assigned patrol," the lowly guard said, "but I am the one asking questions here. You do not expect me to believe the princesses have made you a stable hand, now what are you doing here?"

"They haven't made me shovel horse dung yet but if they get the idea I'm sure they will." Tara replied, "I'm here because I was going to get supper and since I'm stuck inside the castle all the time this is as close to being outside as I can come. I hope I don't need permission to do that now."

"No," Frugal Lucre answered, "but you would do well to be careful from now on. With news of your escaped princess us guards have been instructed to treat any suspicious activity as grounds to arrest those involved."

Walking back into the castle Tara let out a quiet sigh of relief. Suspicious guards was just another in a long list of things she didn't want to deal with but had to if she was going to keep sending out intelligence.

-Upperton-

"Argh," Kim groaned as she crumpled the paper into a tiny ball before throwing it against the wall.

"Is something wrong?" Josh opened the door and poked his head in. "I thought I heard something."

"It's just another one of those stupid invitations," Kim pointed to the offending ball of paper, "I know what they're doing. All those generals I shoved aside when I showed up are just going to keep me running from one silly social event to another while they go about doing whatever they want. And I can't decline that many of them because they're just 'small gatherings of officers' but they refuse to talk business there. The worst part is that there are enough high ranking officers here that they can just keep this going for months without it being ridiculous on their end. By the time I can fob them off by saying I've gone to their little get together before we'll have invaded Drakanada and they'll have screwed it all up."

"Wow," Josh stepped into the room fully, "that doesn't sound very good. Is that why you've had me doing all your paperwork for you, trying to make some sort of run around them?"

"Yep," Kim nodded, "it's not quite as good as if I do it myself since they know I'm just signing off on it. But it's better than nothing and in any case I've got Erik bringing in some people I trust to make these people shape up or ship out. They should be getting here soon and I can't wait to spring this little surprise."

"I'm not going to complain about anything that helps us win the war," Josh said, "but who exactly are you expecting to run roughshod over a fair bit of the general staff?"

"One of them is Betty Director," Kim pulled out her service record from a pile on her desk, "She has several doctorates from the University of Middleton and actually prefers Doctor Director to her name for some reason. She's worked in intelligence for most of her career and helped plan the operation that queued us in to the Drakanadian attack in the first place. The other one is Steve Barkin, he actually tutored me a fair bit when I was younger. He's been serving up in the Rockwall Kingdom and is one of the few people showing results. I don't think they can ignore the kind of record these two are bringing to the table. But even if they can they know my Dad will back them up one hundred percent if they start butting heads. They might not want to listen to me since I won't be queen for a long time but ignoring my dad is something even they aren't stupid enough to do."

"So then as soon as they get here you'll want to see them."

"Yeah, but I'm not expecting them till after sundown and that's several hours away. So don't keep looking out your window every few minutes."

Josh looked down at the paper he had been holding when he poked his head in, "If you have a few free hours I have something that came across my desk that I think might interest you. I don't know if we can make it work in a few weeks or months before we launch our attack but it sounds like it could have some pretty interesting military applications."

"Well okay," Kim said, "but I warn you that I've had plenty of 'wonder weapons' come across my desk. The next one that gets even close to working will be the first."

"Don't worry," Josh gave Kim the paper he was holding, "I went and checked it out myself yesterday. I really think this could be the real deal. I only heard about it in the first place because the neighbors were complaining how dangerous this Dr. Bortel was being with his fire powder."

Approximately half an hour later found Kim's carriage rolling up to a walled compound south-west of the main walls of the city in one of the many townships that had grown and merged with Upperton over the centuries. Arriving while most people were still at work lessened the occasion of their arrival but Kim still spent several minutes more making her way through the impromptu crowd that gathered around her while Josh went into the compound.

"Kim this is Wade," Josh walked out with a short man barely into his teenage years, "he's Dr. Bortel's assistant and he's the one who showed me around yesterday."

"It's an honor to meet you highness," Wade quickly bowed, "Dr. Bortel is in the lab. I left a note for him that we might have important visitors today but he tends to leave the real world behind when he gets working."

"No big," Kim said as they walked through the gate, "and none of that princess stuff, I'd rather as few people as possible know why I'm here or that I'm even here period. From what Josh tells me you two have come up with something big and I don't want the Drakanadians to come sniffing around for what has us so interested."

"That wouldn't be good," Wade closed the gate behind the three of them, "we've been doing most of our experiments in some fields outside the city and people aren't too quick to get near things that tend to explode. It's been a bit harder to find days when there's no one around with all the soldiers in the city but we're still making progress."

"That's what I'm curious about," Kim looked at the tools scattered around the courtyard, "Josh said you interested him and you just talked about explosions. I'd like to know what exactly you're working on here that I'm trying to keep so secret."

"Well," Wade pulled a pouch from a covered workbench along a wall, "we've been calling it fire powder since it's a powder and when you expose it to lots of heat like a spark it catches on fire. If there's enough of it in a small enough space it kind of explodes. My parents are bell founders and we were originally looking for a way to heat up the iron hotter since that makes bell making easier. I won't bore you with all the details but we stumbled on to a mix of things that really burn well. When we put it in our little forge here in the workshop we got that pile of rocks over in the corner."

Kim looked over at the corner Wade had pointed at and indeed there was a pile of rocks in the process of being cleaned up, "Okay I'm interested. Now tell me how I can use this to beat the Drakanadians."

"That's sort of our problem," Wade poured a stream of black powder on the ground and struck a spark with steel and flint causing the powder to flare up with a bright light, "Dr. Bortel and I didn't exactly think about this sort of thing when we came across this. We've made it burn quicker and hotter since we started working on it and I'm sure we'll make more progress. Also from experience if you fill a small ball with this stuff and light it you'll have lots of sharp hot metal moving very fast. But beyond that we really don't know what else you'd do with it."

"Well that was worth spending the time," Kim said to Josh as they climbed back in the carriage, "I don't like keeping Erik out of the loop but I meant it when I said I'm keeping the circle as small as I can. You and I are going to spend some time figuring out how we can use this fire powder stuff. Once Wade and Dr. Bortel make it better and find a way to mass produce it I think we'll have a real surprise for the Drakanadians.

Several hours later the sun was barely above the western horizon. Kim and Josh had spent that time trying to think of ways to use Wade and Dr. Bortel's fire powder but while they had ideas the time and technology to make those ideas reality was another matter entirely. At an impasse they had separated to make an effort at putting a dent in the never-ending war against paperwork.

"Kim," Josh poked his head into the room as the sun began creeping below the horizon, "Erik just got back, but he's alone and I think something is wrong."

"Can't I get just one break?" Kim sighed, "Well show him in, let's get this over with sooner than later."

Josh opened the door and walked into the room Erik following behind, "Princess," Erik bowed briefly, "I regret to inform you I failed in my mission. Somehow the Drakanadians were aware of what we were doing. The three of us were ambushed; Doctor Director and General Barkin were shot dead off their horses with crossbows. I chased the assassins but before I could catch them they took poison. I'm concerned ma'am that the only way they could know this and take such a chance of exposing themselves is if they have a very well placed spy feeding information to the Drakanadians."

"That could be a disaster," Josh said, "You should find someone in intelligence to come in and find this spy. Make sure they don't know anyone and can look at this with clean eyes."

"No," Kim shook her head, "we need to send the message that we can take care of this. The two of you are going to find out who our spy is. I want them found before the fleet sets sail."

"Yes ma'am," Erik said before whirling around and walking out of the room.

"Is there anything else?" Kim noticed Josh still standing as she went to sit down.

"How do you know it's not me or Erik?" Josh said, "Both of us are in the perfect position to read and pass on information, we're the last people you should have looking for spies."

Kim sat down in her chair and let out a long breath, "I've been alone with both of you when you were armed. Both of you have had chances to kill me and get away with it. If either of you was a spy we wouldn't be talking right now. I get that you don't trust Erik very much but to me that means that if the two of you can agree on who the spy is then it's good enough for me to run with."

"I hope you're right," Josh turned to walk to the door, "I think killing you period would be bad, killing you just before the invasion gets underway could lose us the war."

AN: So about last week funerals suck. I had neither the time nor the inclination to get much writing done. But as an apology I offer this shiny brand new chapter! Originally DNAmy was going to be in this chapter but I was creeping myself out and decided to tone it down a bit. I certainly hope it's been hammered home that the villains in this story are bad people period. On a happier note this is now officially my longest story and it's not slowing down. In the chapters remaining I highly doubt it'll hit 100,000 words but I could always have a fit of insanity and write like 6,000 word chapters. Keep coming back to find out if I finally snap.


	18. One Step Forward

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Now you know I don't own Kim Possible. And knowing is half the battle.

Chapter Seventeen: One Step Forward…

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIX, subject Succession –

While succession in the Three Kingdoms has for some generations run from the ruling monarch directly to their eldest child this has not always been so and this outcome is even today not assured. Upon the death of a monarch fifty one noble families are selected at random to send a representative to Middleton. These form a Noble Congress that then formally selects the next monarch and offers them the crown. These fifty one families are chosen at random in an attempt to prevent political infighting or accumulation of influence. Additionally the selection of fifty one families is to prevent the occurrence of ties when the fate of the Three Kingdoms could rest on one person. In recent generations the ruling monarch has always had a capable eldest child to designate as their heir, or other younger children in the event of the eldest's inability to rule, and the Noble Congress has seen no reason to contest this. For the first two centuries following Unification it was a regular occurrence for the Noble Congress to select different monarchs than the previous one had intended. Several times this came close to devolving into civil war but the bulk of the people and the armed forces made it clear that they accepted the judgment of the Noble Congress. Prior to Unification the kingdoms of Middleton and Lowerton followed this tradition with Upperton following direct succession. During the reign of a monarch twenty five of the selected fifty one families may petition for an extraordinary session to determine the continuing fitness of the monarch to rule. This has happened five times including prior to Unification and has only been convened when a monarch is obviously unfit to continue ruling. To strip a monarch of his or her crown requires a two thirds vote by secret ballot, thereafter all the families of that Noble Congress are barred from serving for three successive monarchs. Last among its major functions the Noble Congress may select and oversee a regent if they decide to offer the crown to someone not yet of age to rule, this remains theoretical as all monarchs were of majority when they ascended to the crown.

Prior to Unification all three kingdoms and many of their constituent parts observed Salic law, the prohibition of women inheriting noble titles, as well as prohibiting nobles and commoners from marrying. Following the chaos of the First Invasion many noble families were wiped out and those that remained were severely depopulated. In many cases it became quickly apparent that revoking Salic law was the only way to prevent entire families from losing their titles. Likewise the narrowing of family lines contributed to an unexplained rise in inherited diseases. To prevent this spread most prohibitions on marriage to commoners were temporarily loosened and eventually abolished. This affected successions in many ways, chiefly by introducing the idea that intra-family succession should be merit based rather than on age.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

"Poor bastard," Brick said as he and Felix watched the corpse sway from the tree limb in the breeze, "the Drakanadians are really cracking down."

"And they picked the worst time to do it," Felix pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, "we lost half of whatever message that guy was carrying because he was out past dark. This one page says there's a spy way up in the Allied command and that the Drakanadians are worried a revolt by the populace might let us push them back behind the mountains. I can't stop thinking what we're missing from that other page."

"It could have been worse," Brick pointed out, "at least we managed to get half of the message and destroy the other half so the Drakanadians don't know there was anything special about this guy. We can get this message to Middleton, let them know that part of it was lost and it will still do lots of good. Looks like your cute little blonde spy came through for us again."

"Don't jinx it," Felix laughed, "now you know our spy is going to turn out to be one of those unibrow lunch ladies from your horror stories about the food at boot camp. Not that I'm complaining about anyone taking the risk to pass information to us. Just you know, don't ruin the picture I have in my head."

"I'm not jinxing it," Brick held up his hands in protest, "I mean if we ever meet the guy getting us this information I don't care how ugly he is I'll buy him drinks till he can fly. And don't mention the unibrow lunch ladies, it brings up memories I've tried really hard to forget."

"Too late for that," Felix said, "seriously though what do you think was on that other page of paper? It's pretty obvious that if our source knew who the spy was it would be on this page and there's no hints what else they could have been trying to tell us."

"I don't know," Brick shrugged his shoulders, "I'd bet targets for the spy or something like that. I don't even want to imagine something else that bad on the other page."

"What else could be that bad," Felix maneuvered his chair to avoid some rocks on the road, "here we thought we had such an advantage reading their intelligence while they couldn't see ours and it turns out all this has just been damage control."

"Yeah," Brick said, "But that's true for them too. And it looks like now we know they have a spy high up in our command chain and they're still in the dark about ours. Intelligence wasn't my specialty but I'm sure there are things we can do to make their spy less effective and that's an edge."

"I guess," Felix sighed, "as long as we're looking on the bright side at least we know that whatever his name was who came to rescue the princess was legit. Spy or not that's a big thorn in the Drakanadians side and if the resistance can somehow strike enough important places at once while the Three Kingdoms attacks I think we have a real shot of retaking the kingdom. If we can one up that and find a way to get everyone to rise up at once that's the game as far as the Drakanadians are concerned up here."

"It's about time. But seriously what was that guy's name?" Brick pounded his rolled up right hand into the palm of his left, "it started with R I remember but we were so busy trying to decide if he was friendly or not I never paid much attention to his name."

"I'm sure someone back in town remembers," Felix pointed out, "I mean he saved the princess from the evil hoard. That's like make a holiday about him stuff, at least a few drinking songs. Plus I don't know about other people in the resistance but he's the only person in the Three Kingdoms I know and we're probably going to have to talk to someone if we want to coordinate an attack with an uprising."

"That's actually a really good point," Brick said, "I'd say we should try to contact other people in the resistance to find out if they know anyone we can contact but that's a bad idea for all sorts of reasons."

"We could just ask anyone around town," Felix's laugh held zero humor, "ever since the princess was snatched from under their noses in our town the Drakanadians have had the whole place on a death warrant. I keep waiting for them to storm in burning and killing everything and everyone. I was starting to think they had enough on their mind elsewhere to leave us alone but it sounds like they want to make an example of somewhere to keep the rest of the kingdom down and I think we're high up on their list of places they don't like very much."

"You need to stop being right so often," Brick grimaced, "one of these days it's going to get us killed. I guess I can ask around town and see if I can't figure out that R guy's name to start working on how we can pull this off. If you want to work with the village council on a way to get everyone out of here in a hurry in case the Drakanadians come back in a bad mood that would help a lot too."

"Already got several ideas," Felix sped up his chair, "now let's see if we can't dig that thorn in the Drakanadians side a lot deeper."

-Middleton-

Ron wasn't swinging the Lotus Blade with any particular form in mind, rather he was attempting to blank his mind and the rhythmic motion back and forth across the practice yard was as good a way to Zen as anything he knew of. It had been thirteen weeks since he had lost control of his power and killed those Drakanadian soldiers, not that he had a problem with Drakanadians dying he just preferred it no t be in a fit of insanity. Ever since then he had been trying to keep his Mystical Monkey Power under control. He wasn't fighting off homicidal urges or anything of the sort, rather he could feel that if he started using his power while angry he would be a short step from that forest back in the Rockwall Kingdom.

The Lotus Blade itself was also helping Ron keep his cool. Several of its previous owners had been very cool customers indeed and several more had been in fights wielding the blade where cool under pressure was very much necessary. He couldn't quite describe how the experiences of the past owners made it into his head if he were asked. It wasn't at all voices in his head, Ron didn't think he could use a sword that talked to him. It was more a feeling of déjà vu at certain points or a feeling to simply do something in a certain way in other. The strangest thing was that all these sensations seemed filtered through him as though it wasn't just past memories but all the masters who had used this Lotus Blade before him thinking over his situation and advising him. Almost like instead of there being one Sensei there was a whole room full of wise old men like him.

As Ron worked his way back and forth across the field he was so absorbed in his internal monologue that he was entirely unaware he had an audience watching him. Bonnie would die before admitting it to him but watching him work the sword in his hands so effortlessly made her think that he was in his own way quite competent. That or he was lucky enough to make no difference was the only possible explanation for how he had snatched her from all those Drakanadian soldiers and gotten her across half a continent. Another thing she would never ever admit was that as decent an outdoors person as she was she could never have made it to Middleton on her own. Likely she would have been captured, starved to death, or fallen into some bottomless ravine never to be found.

In the two weeks since they had made it to Middleton he seemed to have been appointed her handler as the two of them had reached some sort of equilibrium that no one particularly wanted to mess with. It was painfully obvious to her that somehow their trip from the Rockwall Kingdom to Middleton had been a blissful respite from the poor boy's losing battle with gravity over the fate of his pants. Scarcely a day had gone by where she was unaware of what he had on beneath his trousers, everyone else seemed inured to the regular occurrence and so Bonnie tried with some difficulty to do likewise.

Meanwhile Ron had spent long enough inside his find fighting down his magic to feel himself not a danger to anyone. Had he known anyone was watching he never would have attempted the particular flourish he did but believing himself alone and therefore wanting to mess around a bit Ron swung the Lotus Blade rather fancily towards its scabbard and right into his leg.

Bonnie didn't quite process what she was seeing until the connected the sword on the ground with the rapidly spreading red spot on Ron's trousers. "Idiot," she muttered as she ran over to him, "I don't know how he goes from mountain man to this and stays alive."

"Hey Bonnie," Ron said through gritted teeth as he saw the brunette run up to him, "I might have cut myself practicing. You don't have some rags or something to wrap this with do you?"

"Oh you don't 'Hey Bonnie' me," she plowed right through his attempt at mirth, "I saw you stick that big thing in your leg. Now stand still and let me look at this, I told you before I've put too much time and effort into making you useful to let you die on me."

She ripped open the hole in his pants to let her look at the wound. It was about three inches up from his knee, went in almost to the bone, and luckily for Ron it was on the outside of his leg.

"Well the good news is you're not going to die. If you absolutely had to stab yourself at least you had the sense to pick a spot that's easy for me to fix. You're such an idiot though, if you'd stabbed yourself on the inside of your leg and I hadn't been here you'd have been dead inside of five minutes. How in the world did you ever live before you knew me?"

"I'm starting to wonder that myself," Ron said as Bonnie started closing up the wound, "I think I just did a lot less dangerous stuff. Kim dragged me all sorts of crazy places and I did lots of things for Yamanouchi but until right before I met you people weren't trying to kill me while I was doing it."

"Oh well I'm sorry my kingdom being invaded and overrun made your life a little bit harder. Let me just walk to the Drakanadian capital and tell them they've inconvenienced you, I'm sure they'll have all their soldiers headed north as soon as they can."

"Hey I'm not blaming you, just saying that life was a lot more boring. I mean it's not all bad though, I had the longest stretch in my life without losing my pants after meeting you."

"Is Ronald losing his pants again?" Ron had long since been absolved of the need to stand when Kim's father entered a room and Bonnie was a bit busy healing him to stand.

"Hey Mr. P." Ron waved, "Pants didn't actually drop this time, I think that's improvement."

"It's certainly different," Mr. P chuckled, "I don't think it's the most interesting one though. I still remember that one with the length of twine, three geese, those wood shavings, and the finance ministers portrait of his great-great grandfather."

"Do I even want to know?" Bonnie leaned back and wiped her hands clean of blood.

"Well it started on a Tuesday…" Mr. P ignored Ron's pleading look for silence.

"You cannot expect me to believe the geese did _that_ with a portrait that kind of big." Bonnie was still laughing periodically several hours later. "And after the thing with…" she dissolved in another fit of laughter.

"Oh how I rue the day I ever thought going through with that could be a good idea," Ron shook his fist.

Somewhere deep inside Bonnie there was a witty response to that but her ongoing laughter kept it miles from seeing the light of day.

One look at Bonnie's face told Ron everything he needed to know, "You're never going to let me live this down are you. I'll live to a hundred years old and you'll still be right there breaking out in random laughter about this."

"Duh," Bonnie's snort was very much un-princess like.

"Well I guess I _was_ going to forget about that one time in the mountains with the marmots and that raspberry bush," Ron said in a particularly casual tone of voice, "but as long as we're remembering funny stories from the past."

"Oh no you don't," Bonnie's change of attitude was abrupt indeed, "you breathe one word of that to anyone and I swear I'll come up with something worse for you than what I have planned for my sisters."

"And that would be?" Ron gulped all of a sudden quite afraid of Bonnie.

Fortunately for Ron's state of mind and continued ability to sleep at night Bonnie's answer was interrupted by a messenger with a piece of paper.

"Pardon," the messenger bowed to Bonnie, "but his majesty thought you should see this latest piece of intelligence from our source in the Rockwall Kingdom."

Ron completely gone from her mind Bonnie started off down the palace halls at a pace just short of tangling herself in her dress.

Terribly curious as to what could have so quickly torn Bonnie's attention from a good threat Ron took off after her.

Paying no attention to the guards outside Kim's dad's office Bonnie knocked once before walking in. "I'm going back to the Rockwall Kingdom."

Kim's dad leaned up from the maps he had been looking over, "That's not quite what I had in mind when I sent that to you. I was hoping you'd know lists of targets or road links we could have the resistance hit to speed our attack up."

"Oh I know all those things," Bonnie was just at the edge of a rant, "but it's not going to be good enough. If the resistance is making trouble for the Drakanadians you might kick them out. But if everyone rises up all at once there's no way the Drakanadians can hang on to the Rockwall Kingdom. I've got a chance to free my people and I'm _not_ passing it up."

"Now hang on just a second," Mr. P. held up a hand, "one: I think you're underestimating how thin the Drakanadians are in the Rockwall Kingdom and how much of an attack we can launch. And two: if you go there you're practically walking right into their hands. We can replace a lot of people but if the Drakanadians get their hands on you it would be as bad as them burning Upperton to the ground."

"I'm not going to walk up to them and tell them who I am," Bonnie did something Ron had never seen her do before, plead. "If this works we can retake the forts in the northern passes. That doesn't put an end to the Drakanadians; I know we need to be marching through their capital to do that. But it cuts off all their attack routes if they can't get through the royal navy and that's almost as good as winning. That's got to be worth taking some risks for and besides it's not like I'll be going alone."

"Oh?" Mr. P. raised an eyebrow.

"That's me," Ron stepped into the room and raised a hand, "I know she's gonna get me to go with her somehow so I'm just gonna save myself a few hours of trouble."

"Okay," Mr. P. sighed, "this is against my better judgment but if I can't stop you I'll just try to make the best of it. One thing though, Ronald if people see someone in random clothes guarding the princess it's going to raise questions about who you are that would lead to other questions I'd rather not have people ask. So before you two leave stop by the supply depot and pick up an army captain's uniform."

"I'm not in the army Mr. P.," Ron said, "isn't that going to raise a whole bunch of other questions."

"Oh you're not going into the army, "Mr. P. chuckled, "just the uniform. And I'll write up something to cover everything. Besides, what makes you think Bonnie will stop bowling people over long enough for them to ask questions?"

Ron didn't have an answer to that.

AN: First a public service announcement, as the encyclopedia entry at the top says marrying your siblings is a bad idea. For an example of how bad this is look up Charles II of Spain. Second good news! I got back a part of my bar test results and if things keep going that well I should pass handily. Now on to the chapter. This one was actually tough to write if only because I keep thinking about the next chapter and how much I want to write it. Expect the mood whiplash to continue as both sides plans collide with one another for a few more chapters. Hopefully this glimpse into the future has you coming back next Friday for more.


	19. Two Steps Back

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: By the power of Greyskull! I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Eighteen: … Two Steps Back

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume VI, subject Fortifications–

While there is little archaeological evidence from ancient times that has not been worn down by time or at some point torn down by enterprising villagers for later construction there are a handful of exceptions to this. Evidence of fortifications has given present historians the ability to draw up rough political maps of times before the three kingdoms unified the southern half of the continent. Those ancient fortifications that remain are all of heavily packed dirt, while this would do little to deter a determined attacker with siege engines they played a key role in protecting developing cities from raiders. It is also believed that given its ease of use wooden walls were widely used where it was a practical resource but no evidence has been discovered surviving to the present. One feature that was relatively constant across all fortifications and indeed remains in use today is the field of fire. This is a zone often several hundred yards in length cleared of all obstructions. Attackers are thus forced to cross open ground within range of defenders in open assaults as well as rendering sneak attacks much more difficult.

The First Invasion saw several important developments in the previously forgotten arts of fortifications. Most important was the replacing of packed dirt and wood with stone walls as a response to widespread deployment of siege engines by the Drakanadians. Stone walls played little role early in the war as they were too time consuming to build but later in the war they did play an important role in slowing Drakanadian advances and sapping Drakanadian manpower and resources. The second major innovation was the development of moats. A moat is a ditch that is typically filled with either water or sharpened wooden stakes that serves several purposes. Moats increase the effective height of the wall, by forcing sappers to dig deeper it makes their efforts harder, and in attempts to breach the gates it forces attackers to group farther out which makes for easier targets for archers.

The height of fortification engineering as well as a humiliation to its advocates was the great northern forts of the Rockwall Kingdom. Composed of several walls with killing fields in-between these were intended to stop a Drakanadian invasion or slow it so much that invaders would find the flat land beyond the passes filled with soldiers. Each wall was twenty feet thick and the highest was nearly sixty feet high before taking into account the fifteen feet deep and wide moats at the base of each wall. The gateways were a series of two feet thick solid oak doors through the wall with ports overhead for boiling oil to be dumped on attackers. Fully guarded and with observation towers in the surrounding mountains to prevent attempts at bypassing the walls it was expected that a frontal assault on the forts would be suicidal. However these monuments to defensive engineering fell victim to the weakness of all forts, espionage. Princesses Connie and Lonnie of the Rockwall Kingdom were able to conspire with the Drakanadian Empire to have most of the forts defenders sent home on leave just before the attack, the gates opened by spies whose presence was covered by the princesses, and with detailed plans of the forts many of their advantages were eliminated. This allowed in the opening hours of the Second Invasion for elite Drakanadian soldiers to overrun the few remaining defenders and open the way for the bulk of the Drakanadian army to follow behind with few casualties and no significant loss of time.

-Upperton-

Erik had a problem. Nothing so drab or predictable as coming to appreciate the values and ways of those he had been sent to spy on. Erik remained firmly loyal to Drakanada and determined as ever to carry through with his mission. It was in fact his dedication to following through with his orders from the emperor that was the source of Erik's problem. On the one hand Kim Possible was getting very nosy about certain things and her lap dog Mankey had had it in for Erik from their first meeting. The solution was simple and obvious, arrange for 'accidents' to befall them or more likely he would have to take a personal hand in putting an end to those two. However Erik had orders from the emperor himself to not expose himself until a particular signal was given and then in a very specific way that would ensure Drakanadian triumph. Those orders meant he had to find a way to continue hiding and therein lay the essence of his problem. Erik had the perfect way to remain hidden but he also had orders that any individuals with magical talent should be absconded with and sent back to Drakanada to serve the empire. Camille Léon had a very public dislike for the royal family and the reforms it had enacted over the last several generations. Rumor also had it that her disinheritance from her rather wealthy family had come after no small amount of pressure from Middleton. It would therefore, Erik thought, be the easiest thing in the world to frame her and divert attention from him. But Camille Léon had a little known talent, she could shape-shift.

It seemed as though he was in a lose-lose situation. If he were exposed for the spy he was it would do incalculable damage to the Drakanadian war effort and he would disobey that order. But if he framed the Léon girl she would be killed outright or thrown in a dungeon for the rest of her life. Either way her talents would be lost to the empire and he would have disobeyed his orders. He supposed that in the long run if he could keep her in a dungeon that it might be possible to retrieve her later on if she still lived. But even without the torture and starvation common to Drakanadian dungeons he couldn't necessarily count on a pampered and spoiled noble girl to survive long enough, not unless…

In Drakanada there was a game called Go in which two opposing players tried to capture a board with a grid laid out by placing stones on it. Erik had always been little better than average, his teacher Lord Monty Fiske had been a true master at the game. But once while playing another student at the espionage academy Erik had had a moment of absolute clarity about the future he had not repeated until now. Camille Léon had to take the fall for his actions and go to prison. But Erik would be in an excellent position to influence what her conditions were like in prison. A stay in prison harsh enough to completely turn her against the Three Kingdoms but soft enough to ensure her survival until the Drakanadian army took Upperton and could take her for re-education would be difficult to arrange but not impossible. And it would be easy enough to keep his name away from the girl so she never suspected he'd had anything to do with her imprisonment.

There was one other problem that might be a bit more difficult for Erik to overcome. Kim Possible wanted both him and Mankey to agree on the identity of the spy and Erik thought his counterpart might disagree with him simply out of spite. Perhaps Mankey wouldn't be quite so petulant, Erik could admit that Mankey was intelligent enough and he and the princess could certainly keep their eyes on the larger picture. That unfortunately presented a whole new slew of problems. He knew that Mankey would think he was lying as a matter of principle and he would therefore have to make his forged evidence perfect. And perhaps a talk with Camille's parents was in order.

Josh didn't like it one bit. His first instinct when Kim had asked him and Erik to look for the spy in their ranks had been to point to his left. He'd managed to suppress that instinct and only bring it up with Kim after Erik had left the room. Now here he was looking at correspondence that seemed to drop their spy, one Camille Léon, right into his waiting hands. She was an irresponsible, spoiled, and egotistical girl who vociferously disagreed with the royal family's views that commoners didn't need to kiss the ground on which she walked. Her parents had disinherited her, stating quite clearly that they wanted their fortune and title of nobility to pass to someone who would put it to good use. However they did quite a bit of business with the government and rumors persisted that the royal family had been behind her disinheritance. Josh hated to admit it but looking at everything he had been able to find out about Camille Léon she was spiteful enough to betray the Three Kingdoms if she thought there was even a chance they had been behind her disinheritance.

"I hate to admit it" Josh sighed, "but this is solid, how'd you get your hands on it?"

"It was her parents who gave all this to me." Erik pointed at the papers in Josh's hands, "apparently they know about her little talent and how she's used it to get revenge on people for awhile. The assassination fit the pattern of how she operates except people died this time."

"So that's it then," Josh said, "she shape shifts to be the leader of some band of small-time thugs and gives them everything they need to bust into the big time. I'm not saying that I expect thieves and murderers to put country ahead of money but this just seems like an awful lot of trouble to bring down on themselves. We really don't know what she promised them to get them to do this?"

"You'll have to ask Camille Léon but I don't think we're getting anything out of her." Erik shrugged his shoulders, "The assassins are dead and she seems smart enough to stick to denying everything until it suits her. As long as she's holding on to information we can use she can bargain it away to make us keep her alive."

"Well she can bargain it away from a cell in the dungeon," Josh stood up, "let's take this to the princess."

"You're sure?" Kim looked up over the letter, "You're both one hundred percent behind her being our spy?"

"Yes ma'am," Erik said, "with her shape shifting abilities she would have had little trouble getting into the administration buildings to copy down whatever intelligence she wanted. True or not she believes that your family is behind her disinheritance and it seems that she's well know in local noble circles for nursing grudges and going to lengths for revenge. That's means and a motive, we're not sure when the Drakanadians approached her or if she approached them but at some point they started talking to one another."

"Anything to add?" Kim looked directly at Josh.

"Just that if we're going to do this we need to arrest her in a hurry before she can turn into someone else and disappear."

"Okay," Kim reached into a drawer and pulled out an order to arrest someone, filling in the name and signing at the bottom she handed it to Josh, "Take care of it personally you two, I want her alive if possible and I can count on you two not to screw it up."

Several hours later Kim walked down into the dungeon under the old palace of Upperton with two grim faced guards beside her who didn't hesitate to roughly push back the inhabitants of the other cells who reached out to the passers by. At the end of the hall was a thick oak door with a small barred window, the cell behind it had thicker walls to ward off the chill and had more torches for head. It was a remnant of darker days of the Three Kingdoms when political prisoners were regularly taken but it would serve to keep a person isolated from the threats of chill and other inmates in the dungeon.

"I win," she said as she walked up to the barred window, "you've gotten in more blows than you should have but you're going to spend a long time here."

"Oh you're not going to kill me," a blonde girl slightly taller than Kim stormed up to the other side of the window. "You make my family hate me, take away my fortune, arrest me, and you're not going to finish the job? I didn't have anything to do with the Drakanadians but when I get out of here you bet I'm finding them and doing everything I can to take you down!"

"Like that's supposed to scare me," Kim smirked, "I thought about having you executed right away, I know you won't talk after all. But someone reminded me that if I execute you that's it, over right there. But I can leave you here to rot for a long time, how fun do you think that eight by eight room is going to be after thirty or so years?"

"Let me out!" Camille Léon shrieked, "You can't keep me in here, I'm innocent!"

"Yes I can," Kim spun around and started walking away, "I told you that I won."

Behind her Camille Léon sunk to the floor of her cell and started crying.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Tara stepped over the shards of the broken pot with an inconspicuous smirk on her face. She hadn't been the one to break the pot but things like that had been occurring quite a bit over the past two weeks. While the servants had never been particularly enthusiastic about working for their new masters since news of Bonnie's escape had reached them their past work ethic had seemed collaborationist by comparison. When she had written down that the Drakanadians were afraid of a general uprising when news of Bonnie finally got through their array of censors and secret police Tara had thought her oppressors being terribly over cautious. For all that they seemed to be very occupied elsewhere there were still enough Drakanadians in the Rockwall Kingdom to do a lot of killing before the Three Kingdoms managed to boot them out. The past few weeks of listening to gossip and reading what went across Connie and Lonnie's desks made her think that her isolation had made her underestimate just how much the population of the Rockwall Kingdom wanted their occupiers gone.

Perhaps it was simply experience but Tara noticed that over the last few weeks the bureaucrats had become positively nasty in their ability to grind things to a halt for want of a few minutiae that were in no sense of the word important except that they made life inconvenient for the Drakanadians. Similarly Tara had spent an hour yesterday walking back and forth between Connie and Lonnie's rooms and the kitchens getting their order just right. And because the cooks had asked her with diabolical grins on their faces she hadn't minded one bit, Connie and Lonnie all but exploding with anger had been its own reward as well.

The last two weeks had been productive if somewhat routine as far as passing intelligence on to the Three Kingdoms. Mostly it had been reports of where the Drakanadians were moving units along the front line, where their reserves were, and where they thought Allied units were being brought up to the front. The most interesting bit was the Drakanadians bringing up winter clothes for their troops, four months after the invasion the fall chill was beginning to set in and the Drakanadians were settling in for the long haul.

Speaking of the long haul it was going to be another late night for Tara. She had been booted out of the meeting Connie and Lonnie were in with the Drakanadian emperor along with all the other servants and that meant sneaking into their rooms late at night to discover what had been said in her absence so it could make its way south and make the Drakanadians lives more difficult. She had done it a handful of times and it never seemed to get any easier. Thankfully the Drakanadian guards were as precise as the gears that ran the handful of clocks in the castle and the homes of other wealthy people. Knowing her luck though Connie or Lonnie would make her spend another night in the soldier's barracks out of spite or some imagined slight on Tara's part. Nights there was another thing that never got easier.

Tara spent some time making sure all her lock-picking tools were in good order as well as oiling the hinges of the doors she would have to use till they were silent even to her opening them. Again it helped to know where and when the guards would be to avoid notice. Connie and Lonnie had her run through her typical list of pointless yet humiliating tasks before they went to bed, Tara was more exacting in performing those tasks this night than others because she wanted no excuse for either princess to take out spite on her.

Her precautions paid off and at some horrible and unnatural hour of the night Tara crept through the halls of the castle silently opening and closing doors on her way to Connie and Lonnie's suites. Even though she knew exactly where each guard was supposed to be Tara still exercised caution bordering on paranoia during her trek. One never knew when a guard might be delayed by something and stay somewhere too long or hurry to try and catch up and get ahead of themselves.

There was perhaps one thing about her late night ordeals that had gotten easier, experience let her be quicker and quieter about picking these locks in particular than she had been the first time she did this. While Tara had a better map in her head of her route she still had her lantern let out a sliver of light to catch anything not where it should be or in case she plain screwed up going where she wanted to.

Thankful that she had thought to refill this particular inkwell earlier in the day Tara pulled out some paper from her boot and a quill from the desk. Opening the chest of papers as quietly as she had the door from the hallway Tara pulled the top sheet off and began to read but stopped almost as soon as she started. It had two words in large script in the middle of the page, 'Hello Tara.'

Quiet as she had been Tara neither heard who snuck up behind her nor had a chance to struggle as a foul smelling cloth was held over her face.

AN: Why yes I am an evil person. This chapter takes us into the last act of this story. There's no more setup to be had, no more things to put in place, from here on out it's all moving towards the climax. And a warning for future chapters, consider that in PG-13 movies, which this is the equivalent rating of, people die en masse and in rather unpleasant ways along with a plethora of other bad things. You've been warned. Now the beginning of weekly exhortations, in the US there's this little thing on November 2nd called an election. If you happen to live in the US and are over 18, go vote!


	20. Deliverance

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I am vengeance, I am the night… I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Nineteen: Deliverance

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume V, subject Economy–

Shortly before the Second Invasion, in the five hundredth year after the unification of Middleton, Lowerton, and Upperton into the Three Kingdoms the decennial census reported a population of approximately twenty six million people. Just below half of the population lived in the Kingdom of Middleton. Two thirds of the remaining half lived in the Kingdom of Upperton while the remainder lived in the Kingdom of Lowerton. The specific economic output of each region is addressed in the entry for that particular region and not here. The majority of the population makes its primary living through agriculture. Practices such as crop rotation and the use of heavy iron plows allows for surpluses of crops sufficient to feed a growing urban population and to permit some rural populations to engage in growing luxury crops or more industrial pursuits. Citizens within a few days of the coast, particularly in Upperton count fish as a major supplement to their diet. Likewise persons living near to ranches in Middleton have a considerably higher rate of beef consumption than other areas. While central authority is extant in all regions of the Three Kingdoms outside of major urban areas most towns and villages are relatively self-sufficient. Peddlers and caravans are responsible for most transfer of wealth and resources in the Three Kingdoms. These groups or individuals typically carry manufactured goods not easily made in a village as well as some few luxury goods such as spices and for the particularly wealthy silks.

In the chaos following the First Invasion there was a general collapse of the economy in the Three Kingdoms. This was precipitated by a number of factors, large numbers of unarmed and newly unemployed soldiers, disintegration of central authority in many places, depopulation through combat, destruction of farmland by retreating armies, as well as a famine that struck shortly after the close of the war. Following the establishment of the Three Kingdoms several of these factors were solved. The creation of a standing army employed many former brigands, restoration of central authority likewise helped trade to recover. Estimates are however that it took close to a century for the population to recover as well as for farmland to be recovered to the extent it had been used before the war.

Details on the Drakanadian economy are uneducated guesses at best. The Royal Academy is fairly certain that military expenditures consume a considerably larger portion of their economy than is the case for the Three Kingdoms. Industries relating to the military are thought to be robust and to receive considerable assistance from the central government. Similarly it is believed that the Drakanadian central government exerts considerably more control over the Drakanadian economy. Evidence of this comes from captured Drakanadian rations that show remarkable similarity in content. It can further be speculated that given the smaller population of Drakanada their economic output is less than that of the Three Kingdoms.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

"Well I guess that will teach me to be right about something like that," Brick looked down at the notice announcing Tara's arrest and pending execution for espionage.

"In the future I'd appreciate it if you'd use this power for good instead of evil." Felix said.

"How was I supposed to know Bonnie's maid was our spy?" Brick protested, "I thought Connie and Lonnie would have had her killed right off since they couldn't get to Bonnie."

"There you go again with that being right thing," Felix pointed an accusing finger, "it looks like they want Bonnie to know what's happening to her though. Ten days between arresting her and executing her is probably just enough time for it to reach Middleton if they sent it right out but not enough time to do anything. Which I guess is actually pretty evil of them."

"That's Connie and Lonnie for you, back before the war started whenever someone drew guard duty for one of them we used to take them out the night before they had to start and they didn't pay for a thing. I heard almost all of their guards flat out deserted when they betrayed the Rockwall Kingdom. I'd say it says something bad about me that I wish some of them had tried to kill those two before running but then I look at something like this and think it really doesn't say anything bad about me at all."

"If the Three Kingdoms would ever get on with attacking the Drakanadians rather than trying to kill them all with catapults and trebuchets you just might get a chance to do something really bad to those two. And if we have still a week before this Tara person is executed can't the resistance plan something. I know we're all busy getting ready to help the attack but it would be a real blow to snatch her right out from under their noses."

"I'd have a few ideas if we weren't about to help the Three Kingdoms attack," Brick sighed, "but we are so I might as well wish for the moon while I'm at it. Plus that practical mind that got drilled into me tells me that we're helping a lot more people with the general attack and that once we retake the capital the intelligence she could pass on was going to dry up anyways. I still don't like it one bit though."

"That's harsh," Felix refused to look at Brick, "Risk your life like that and this is all the thanks we can give her."

"If we ever got caught you expect someone would be able to rescue either of us?" Brick answered with a question. "Not to be more downer than I already have been but if Tara really was sneaking around the castle right under everyone's nose like that we're more than a little lucky she lasted this long. I already said I thought she'd been killed right off and she must have been watched almost every hour of the day."

"All the more reason to go trying to rescue her. We ought to put our necks out at least half as much as she has."

"The Three Kingdoms is going to attack any day now," Brick looked south, "It's three days to the capital from here, so if we rescued her in one day it would still be a week round-trip. And we have the orders for a fair bit of the eastern part of the kingdom's resistance on us. If we're somewhere between here and the capital when the attack comes those orders aren't going to go out. How many people will die then?"

"I just don't like not doing anything." Felix grumbled, "We've been able to use the intelligence she's been giving us to hurt the Drakanadians a lot. It just seems like now of all times we should be able to do something, anything."

"You get used to that feeling in the army in a hurry," Brick said, "The kingdom spent years and a _lot_ of money to build the northern forts. But it's not those that kept the Drakanadians from invading all this time. If the Drakanadians really wanted to I think they could get through, it would have been horribly expensive but if it was just us waiting behind the forts they would have won. It's the knowledge that the Three Kingdoms was waiting for them that kept them from going. It takes awhile to stomach the fact that for all our effort our plan in the end boiled down to hang in there long enough for the Three Kingdoms to bail us out."

"You're saying I should get used to feeling helpless?" Felix deadpanned.

"I guess that's one way of looking at it. But I like to think that the Drakanadians thought they had to get through the forts by sneaking through because they knew they'd lose if they tried to go straight through. Even if we couldn't win the whole thing on our own we still made them dance to our tune for awhile."

"Well what about that Ron Stoppable guy," Felix said, "He already pulled off one impossible rescue right under the Drakanadians noses we could see if he has another in him. And from the front lines riding horses hard could make it to the capital in three days. Even four would still leave plenty of time to rescue Tara."

"Only one problem I see with that," Brick replied, "but it's a big one. He snuck Princess Bonnie to Middleton and we don't know that he's left yet or that he came back to the front lines even if he did."

"Well what do we have to lose by at least sending a message to him? Worst that happens is it doesn't get there in time and we're right back where we started."

"Now I wish you'd stop doing that."

"Stop doing what?"

"Famous last words," Brick looked at Felix nervously, "things like what could go wrong, or what do we have to lose. It's like you're giving an open invitation to the universe to show you exactly what can go wrong."

"Well we're still going to send the message anyways."

"Yeah."

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Chaos was a good way to describe the front Ron thought. People were constantly on the move, though only in the trenches close to the actual lines, and the sounds of catapults and trebuchets were a constant din in the background. Perhaps organized chaos was a better term, or at least chaos with a singular purpose in mind. For all the danger he had been in Ron had rather little experience with war as most people fought it but it seemed as though this particular attack was considerably bigger than anything that had come before it. He had to admit that Mr. P. had been right that no one would notice an extra captain acting as Bonnie's guard. While there were plenty of support personnel in their civilian clothes none of them were in any particular way trained or fit for combat and if he had shown up not in uniform it probably would have attracted plenty of attention.

Not that Bonnie showing up at the front wasn't an event of itself, especially among the troops from the Rockwall Kingdom who seemed as gung-ho to attack the Drakanadians as she was. Ron supposed that if a hostile army had occupied most of his home he would be eager to see them booted out. Another thing Mr. P. had done was to convince Bonnie that doing the attack right was better than doing it quick. Ron had been worried not attacking quickly would put Bonnie in danger but so far there had been no indication that the Drakanadians were trying to take advantage of their quarry being so close to them. Ron thought the unending artillery fire might have had something to do with that.

When he'd asked why the bombardment had gone on for so long a colonel had told him that long bombardments along a limited front killed some people but did more along the lines of telling the Drakanadians where they were about to be attacked. But having built up enough strength to attack along the whole of the front the announcement of where to expect an attack would be more than outweighed by the casualties it would cause. Additionally the colonel had explained that while an attack was going to be launched along the whole front it would be concentrated in several points and a bombardment along the whole front would help disguise where exactly the attack would begin. Everyone understood though, and the Drakanadians couldn't help knowing, that the eventual goal was the capital and after that the mountain passes in an effort to cut off any stragglers and force the Drakanadians back into their own territory.

The Drakanadians weren't particularly shy about their own counter-bombardment Ron grimly noted as he saw stretcher bearers moving towards the front. In the middle of the Rockwall Mountains no one was particularly concerned about running out of rocks for catapults and trebuchets to throw at each other even before considering all the rocks that were thrown back at the Drakanadians. Soldiers in the maintenance part of their trench rotation were constantly moving carts filled with rocks to artillery emplacements and then returning to the mountains for more rocks and soldiers moving from front line duty to maintenance duty brought yet more carts filled with rocks that had fallen on the front lines.

Nor were both sides shy about raiding each other's trenches. As soon as the sun went down almost until it came back up parties snuck through the wasteland between trenches to gather intelligence, take prisoners, and generally wreak whatever chaos they could while in the other side's lines. Ron had been told that trench raiding had become a part of life in the trenches that ebbed and flowed due to many things like who was opposite each other, the weather, and if the troops thought it could be practically done. But since the Three Kingdoms had made it apparent a general attack of considerable scope was imminent both sides seemed determined to weaken the other side as much as possible before the big fight started.

Ron quickly discovered that the length of his Lotus Blade was out of place up at the front and the only soldiers who had any particular use for long blades were the cavalry who hadn't had much to do since both sides had dug in and put rows of wooden stakes in front of their trenches. Rather most soldiers in the actual trenches preferred knives, daggers, and short axes and hammers because they didn't risk swinging into the trench wall and finding themselves suddenly vulnerable. Everyone in the trenches it seemed also had a crossbow and behind the front lines there were squads of trained longbowmen waiting for targets to show up.

When he'd asked how an attack could succeed against all those defenses could succeed the colonel Ron had been talking to replied, "It's going to be expensive, no doubt about that. But we're a lot better than we were about attacking trenches than we were at the start of the war. For one we won't be sending everyone in a mass wave, the attack will advance by squads who cover each other. It's tough to pull off but we think we can have the artillery stop hitting the Drakanadian lines about when we should be moving into them, which should give them as little time as possible to get a proper defense up and running. Plus our junior officers have the outline of the attack and we're giving them a lot more initiative so they don't have to stop send runners to ask for orders. Our big trick is going to be your friend's resistance members. If the Drakanadians are busy putting down a revolt while we're attacking it not only means fewer troops fighting us, but they'll have a terrible hard time moving troops around to respond to our attack. If we can get the attack moving it should become a lot less expensive, should, and in any case if the Drakanadians are running around trying to stop everything everywhere they can't stop our attack."

Ronald Stoppable had done quite a bit of sneaking in his life. Not a small bit of that sneaking had been fairly recent in fact. He did not however particularly think he'd ever be trying to sneak away from Bonnie and through a friendly military camp but there he was in his tent packing to take a shot at just that. He wasn't planning to do anything that would hurt the Three Kingdoms, emphasis on planning. Things did however have a tendency to go a bit weird around Ron and if this worked he would be leaving Bonnie alone very near to the Drakanadians. But if everything went to plan he would meet up with the advancing troops in probably a week and a half tops and in any case the Drakanadians would have plenty to worry about by the time they figured out he wasn't guarding Bonnie anymore.

And what exactly had Ron preparing to sneak away from his charge and allies? Not quite an hour before a messenger had found him washing his mess kit and said someone from the resistance in the Rockwall Kingdom had sent a message to him. Retreating to his tent Ron had opened the paper to find a message from two guys named Felix and Brick. Digging through his mind yielded only a blank until Ron remembered the big blonde guy and the guy in the wheelchair from that village where he had found Bonnie. He'd never really learned their names but that sounded like those two, if they needed something done and they did remember him it would be fairly smart to try and reach him. Reading further down it became apparent in a hurry why they'd asked for his help. The person who had been feeding the allies most of their information, a girl named Tara apparently, had been found out and was going to be executed. If Ron left tonight and slept in his saddle he could make it in time to at least try rescuing her.

Sadly all of Ron's careful planning came to naught as he heard a thump outside the canvas flap that served as his door and the flap parted to show Bonnie standing over a pack, "glad to see you're packed. I had someone get us some horses, enough to switch rides on the way. We're going to have to leave now and ride straight through if we want to make it in time to do anything other than run through the main gates."

"How did you even…" Ron gaped at her, "I mean that message came right to me."

"Did you really think anything goes on here that I don't know about?" Bonnie smirked, "Especially anything important. Now let's get going."

"No," Ron dropped his pack onto the ground, "there's delivering you into their hands and then there's delivering you into their hands. As long as you're here once you'll be safe enough once the attack starts. But on the other side of the Drakanadians lines they'll all be looking for you and I can't keep you safe and get that Tara girl out."

"I'm going," Bonnie fixed him with a glare Kim would have had to work to match, "with you or without you but nothing is stopping me from rescuing her. I've spent the last four months thinking she was dead and now she's not. You can't tell me if Kim was in that dungeon you'd let anything stand in your way. Besides you need me."

"Oh?" Ron's tone belied just how defeated he was.

"Do you know your way around the castle, like where the dungeons are or where they'd hang someone?"

"No…"

"Do you even know your way around the capital city?"

"No."

"Could you even find your way there staying far enough away from the roads to not get caught?"

"Maybe?"

"Come on, let's go. The attack is starting at dawn and I want to be a long way from here by then."

Ron didn't bother wasting words as he followed Bonnie into the deepening twilight.

AN: About the population figure at the top, I always figured a rough ratio similar to Germany and France before World War I. France in 1400 had about 17 million people so running that number got me the figure at the top. Also I place the story at about the equivalent of AD 1400 in case anyone is wondering, that makes the 1st invasion analogous to the fall of the Western Roman Empire or about AD 450-500. So the people in this story have covered a thousand years of real world historical development in half the time it took us, lucky them. I worry about Brick being a bit OOC in this chapter but in the actual series it sounds like college got his head on straight and got his brain firing so I hope that military training would accomplish the same thing and I'm not pushing it too far. Lastly come back same time next week for more of the same goodness and if you are a US citizen and over 18 another weekly reminder to go out and vote on November 2nd. Registration deadlines are fast approaching so if you're not registered you should stop reading this right now and go register.


	21. Bad Moon Rising

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I am Iron Man! I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty: Bad Moon Rising

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume IX, subject Inquisition–

Following the first invasion the integration of its various components into the Three Kingdoms proceeded in a relatively orderly and continuous fashion. Many previously powerful nobles however found the return of centralized authority difficult to accept as it led to a lessening of their power. Additionally a number of bandit lords banded together as the Three Kingdoms systematically restored order to the southern half of the continent. At first these malcontents met the Three Kingdoms in pitched battle and except for a few limited encounters were soundly routed. This led many to resist in less overt ways and thus was born the inquisition. Also known as the Royal Tribunal for Internal Security, the Inquisition was established approximately ten years following the First Invasion and continued off and on until its final dissolution in the year 375 following unification. Originally begun to prevent rebellious persons from slipping away into the general population the inquisition expanded over the course of several decades. Eventually at its zenith it was an institution devoted to rooting out and eliminating anti-royal elements as well as the monarchy's political enemies.

Throughout its various iterations the inquisition developed a set of fairly standard procedures for rooting out royal enemies. Scouts would be sent ahead of the main body to watch roads away from the town or manor the inquisition was about to investigate. Those found fleeing were subject to great suspicion and often received harsh treatment. While it was never required as such to speak with visiting inquisitors those who did not were often believed to possess secrets they wished to hide. Thus the arrival of the inquisition often resulted in a public gathering. At this gathering persons were invited to admit to participation in rebellions or anti-royal activities. Provided they were able to give over useful intelligence they would generally receive light penalties in an effort to entice others to confess. This is not to say that the inquisition demanded names regardless of the truth, penalties for false accusation were often harsher than that of outright rebellion. Rights given to suspects at trial varied over the course of the inquisition. One relative constant was that the discovery of bias by any accuser was sufficient to set a defendant free. Somewhat similarly confession by torture was generally not permitted. However as torture became a more favored choice of inquisitors to obtain confessions the definition of what constituted torture became considerably narrower.

By the year 325 following unification changing attitudes among the nobility and royal family meant that the inquisition had diminished in power to a considerable extent. Having weathered anti-royal sentiment for over three centuries its perceived threat had all but disappeared. This liberalization of thought combined with the development of the printing press in 318 and its consequences led to the widespread dissemination of new ideas that further weakened the inquisition. Throughout the 340's and most of the 350's it appeared that while officially still existing the inquisition had ceased. This was proven to be false as in 361 a new monarch ascended to the throne and promptly restored the inquisition to the height of its power and terror. In late 374 a Noble Congress assembled that declared the monarch unfit to rule and struck his name from all records, this is why we today are unaware of his name. Following this the Noble Congress invited Mim Possible to the throne and her first act was to permanently and officially abolish the Inquisition.

-Upperton-

"Ma'am I understand entirely your concern that we haven't completely rooted out the Drakanadian spies in our midst but why are you so concerned about damage to the city's defenses? We'll be setting sail with the vast majority of our troops for Drakanada as soon as we get word of success from the attack in the Rockwall Kingdom, and that could come within a matter of days. What does it matter that our defenses here aren't all they can be if the Drakanadians can't possibly attack us here?"

"Because General Cranstin," Kim nearly growled, "they can attack us here. I'm not talking about a whole invasion fleet but you said it that we'll be leaving only a skeleton garrison. If I were the Drakanadians and I wanted to distract us from attacking I can't think of a better way than landing a small force here in Upperton to burn the city or worse occupy it? Do you think we can continue an attack in Drakanada if the docks here have been burned or occupied by the Drakanadians? They know it too and if we let this spy keep sabotaging our defenses here they just might pull it off."

"I don't mean to argue," Cranstin's voice clearly said he did, "but you've been the one stressing lately that the stronger our initial attack the less work we'll need to put into defense in Drakanada. If we start pulling troops from assault training to repair gates and walls it could come back to haunt us. I think this says we need to redouble our preparations to attack, if the Drakanadians are at the point of desperation trying to stop us on their own soil they couldn't hope to do anything here."

Kim sighed, "Have you made your decision of what units are going to be staying behind on garrison duty?"

"Yes Ma'am," Cranstin said in surprise at the abrupt change of topic, "it was a difficult choice. All the men in the army want the chance to participate in this invasion but we have our list."

"Well then," Kim said, "there's your repair crews right there. If they don't have to participate in training for the invasion anymore there's plenty of other ways they can be useful."

"We had hoped to delay the announcement as much as possible. It will likely have a negative effect on the morale of those units and I think giving them as little time to think about not going as we can give them is in their best interest."

"I get your point but this needs doing and it's in the best interest of the whole Three Kingdoms. Go do it, dismissed."

General Cranstin saluted stiffly even for him and turned to leave Kim's office.

Kim sighed and stomped down the urge to throw something fragile at the wall. Sometimes it seemed like her side was as busy fighting itself as it was fighting the Drakanadians. Politics, petty rivalries, plenty to give her a headache before she threw in the fragile egos of several commanders. It would almost be a relief to finally launch the attack since it would throw enough large problems in front of them that all hands on board would actually mean something.

After an hour of trying to catch up on the eternal paperwork and bureaucracy that went with running an army a knock sounded on Kim's door.

"You wanted to see us?" Josh walked into the room followed by Erik.

"Yes," Kim leaned back in her chair, "you two did real good catching that Léon girl. It appears as though we have another Drakanadian making trouble in the city. It's just small sabotage of the defenses right now. Gates that won't close, weapons gone missing from the armory, and a few other small things. It's nothing nearly so bad as the intelligence leak but I want it shut down. We're leaving only a handful of soldiers in the city once the attack gets under way and they'll have enough on their hands just keeping order in the city. Now if the Drakanadians can sabotage the defenses they can sabotage the docks, I don't want them to have the opportunity and you two are going to make sure of it."

"I don't suppose you'll listen to me this time when I say we're the last people who should be looking into this." Josh said.

"Not a chance," Kim barely missed a beat, "everyone else around here with the pull to do this has an ego the size of the city and is incompetent to boot. If I brought someone in from somewhere else by the time they got up to speed on everything we'd already be in Drakanada and it might be too late. So that leaves you two with your already stellar record of catching Drakanadian spies. Now hurry up and go find this spy I want Camille to have a friend down in the dungeon."

"Yes Ma'am," Erik saluted, "is there anything you can tell us before we start our investigation?"

"I had some people make a map of where the sabotage happened and when," Kim handed Erik a folded piece of paper, "see if you can look for patterns, likely places of attack, anything that will let us be there waiting when this guy strikes again."

Erik saluted smartly and executed a perfect turn on his heel, Josh sighed as he saluted but Kim didn't care. They'd get results one way or another and at this point that was all she really cared about.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

A small part of Tara was glad she had gone numb bust most of her was just that. A constant stream of Drakanadian soldiers the whole night before had reduced her dress to tatters that couldn't decently cover someone half her size and more than a few of them had been quite rough while enjoying themselves at her expense. Even numb as she was Tara knew that if she lived long enough she would pick up an impressive collection of bruises and probably more than a few scars, though living long enough was a very big if. The only reason she was still alive Tara had been told was so that Bonnie could hear about her execution just before it happened and obviously not be able to do anything about it. That had been nine days ago and Tara figured her life was better measured in hours than days at this point.

"Wow it looks like you had fun," Tara looked at the door to see Connie and Lonnie walking in, "if you wanted to spread your legs and let the soldiers do you raw all you had to do was ask. It was mean of them to keep your mouth too busy for you to tell them how much you appreciated it but it let them go faster and you don't have the time for any more of them to take a turn at you."

Tara's jaw had long since become too numb and bruised to spew all the vitriol she wanted to at them but her middle finger still worked.

Lonnie didn't hesitate as she pulled out a knife and drove it into the palm of Tara's left hand. Around Tara's bitten off curses she spoke, "What a temper. Really it's your last night alive and we gave you the opportunity to give lots of people pleasure and if you'd taken it right you could have had a wonderful night yourself. But I guess someone dumb enough to think our little sister is worth anything would screw that up too."

"I supposed I need to discipline you too," Connie said as she walked up and casually backhanded Tara across an already swollen eye, "It's almost a shame you'll be dead tomorrow. The soldiers were really starting to enjoy you and we'd thought up some other ways to get it through to you that you shouldn't have spied on us. But the Drakanadians really want you dead and I want it enough to not care that much."

Tara still had her right hand but her body had hit its wall and she just law against the wall on her straw pallet as Connie and Lonnie walked out the door laughing. The next morning she was force fed bread and water, no fancy last meal for her, and a Drakanadian healer made her barely capable of walking to her own death. With only one hand Tara had a difficult time getting the remnants of her dress to cover close to as much as they should have but she eventually managed.

At last the door to her cell opened, "Frugal Lucre was responsible for your capture and I will be the one to lead you to your death. You are ready to go?"

Tara was in no way ready to go but dawdling would only encourage Connie and Lonnie to try out their ideas so she nodded him and walked out of her cell. The halls were almost eerily deserted so no one saw just how degraded Tara's condition had become over the last ten days, one small last mercy. Finally they came to a door and Tara followed Frugal Lucre out into the light.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Ron and Bonnie dashed from the tree line to where the castle wall joined with the city wall. Their Drakanadian horses tied to trees back beyond sight from the walls. The horses Bonnie had brought to Ron's tent had never made it out of the camp once Ron pointed out they'd have enough trouble sneaking themselves through never mind something the size of a horse. The way north had been almost eerily devoid of other people. It was obvious enough that the citizens of the Rockwall Kingdom weren't going anywhere with the Drakanadians sitting on them but Ron was fairly sure that with the Three Kingdoms planning an attack there should have been a stream of Drakanadian soldiers and supplies flowing forward to stop them. Perhaps they were being held in reserve somewhere but where that was Ron couldn't say.

"So," Ron watched as Bonnie swung aside what looked like solid wall but clearly wasn't, "do we have a plan other than burst in there, grab her, and run? You know all while not being caught or killed by the Drakanadians."

"Well," Bonnie looked both ways down the hall before darting in, "if they're using the courtyard I think they will. And it makes sense because it's the only gallows set up in the whole castle. It won't be very crowded, the courtyard is so small that when we do hang someone it's just a royal official, the executioner, condemned, and the family of whoever they killed to wind up there. That hopefully means they're trying to keep this quiet till it's done so there shouldn't be very many guards. We are kind of going to have to grab her and run but hopefully we can use that crossbow you stole to cut down on the number of guards."

"I guess that works but if we burst in there we only get one bolt before the guards are rushing us."

"There's a small tower on the back of the wall, just for observation, but it has a little window that opens towards the courtyard and a ladder that goes down into it. That should let us see where the guards are going and maybe even get off two or three bolts before they realize what's going on. Besides, if they do rush us I know how to use a knife and I don't mind making some Drakanadians need to see their own healers."

Ron quite purposefully didn't respond to that, as they'd moved through the Rockwall Kingdom seeing what months of occupation had done to it had made Bonnie progressively more bloodthirsty and only increased her drive to get revenge on the Drakanadians. Ron wasn't sure what Bonnie's knife could do to someone in full armor or if healing magic could be used to hurt people like his mystical monkey power but he preferred to remain ignorant of both questions.

As they snuck through the empty courtyard and into the tower overlooking it Ron couldn't help voice a thought that ran through his head, "You don't suppose they already did it do you? Like at dawn to keep anyone like us from messing it up."

"They didn't," Bonnie sounded like she was trying to reassure herself as much as him, "If they had there would be a lot more guards everywhere to deal with the public. The people are on the edge of a revolt anyways and this would put them over the top. They haven't done it yet, they haven't."

What seemed like an hour was more like ten to fifteen minutes judging by the way the shadows through the window moved. Then a door opened and a man dressed all in black walked out, Ron grabbed the crossbow and quiver of bolts from the floor but didn't expose himself to take aim just yet. He watched the man in black, likely the executioner move around the courtyard checking various things before walking over to a chest below the tower he and Bonnie were in and emerging a few seconds later with a length of rope.

"Recognize him?" Ron turned to see Bonnie looking over his shoulder.

"No," she said, "I don't think the Drakanadians would trust someone from the Rockwall Kingdom to do this. But then I'm not exactly on a first name basis with the executioners."

"Gotcha," Ron looked back to the courtyard, "at least you were right though. They haven't hung her yet."

Ron took Bonnie's silence as a cue to continue watching. The executioner slowly wound the rope into a noose and tied it to the gallows. Then he checked the mechanism of the trap door and made sure the ground below was clear of obstructions. At the back of his head Ron felt his mystical monkey power start to tingle and he moved into the window to watch a particular door. Before too long it opened and Ron felt the world slow down as he started to tap into his magic. A rather unimpressive Drakanadian soldier in chain mail walked out into the courtyard followed by a blonde girl. Ron didn't need Bonnie's descriptions of her to recognize Tara as he moved the crossbow a hair and squeezed the trigger.

Tara gasped as Frugal Lucre jerked straight and fell sideways with what looked very much like a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest. She watched him hit the ground and decided it was most definitely a crossbow bolt that had brought his life to such an abrupt end. Frantically looking around for the attacker Tara saw someone in the window of the small tower at the wall putting another bolt into the crossbow. The executioner was also looking around but he never saw the second bolt that punched deep into his chest and left him to flop lifeless from the gallows platform onto the ground. Tara had forced herself into a state prepared to be hung with dignity but this had thrown her for such a loop that she felt raw terror as she looked for a place to hide from the mysterious assailant.

"Tara, are you okay?" Tara looked up to see… Bonnie in the window. Surely her sufferings had finally made her crack but if she was about to die hallucinating her best friend wasn't the worst way to go.

"Wait right there, I'll be down in a second." The hallucination Bonnie called out again. Tara was quite sure no such thing was about to happen but she was still alive and she needed to catch her breath before figuring out a way to escape.

Tara watched in a bit of a daze as she imagined Bonnie descending the ladder. She did however begin to have serious doubts about herself when the hallucination grabbed her from the post she had been sitting against into a very tight hug.

"Bonnie, is that really you?" Tara could barely speak as months of emotional exhaustion began to crash down on her.

"It's me," the not hallucination Bonnie said, "we need to get moving in a hurry but let me take a look at you first."

Bonnie's smile disappeared quickly as she looked Tara's condition over, particularly the state of her clothes and the blood-soaked rags covering her left hand. Tara shortly felt the warmth from Bonnie's healing magic on some of her larger cuts that were at particular danger of becoming infected.

"I don't mean to interrupt this," Tara looked up to see the man who had shot Lucre and the executioner, "but we need to go now."

"Hold up Stoppable," Bonnie didn't look away from her work, "If we have to drag Tara to the horses because she can't walk that's not exactly going to speed us up. No one saw us come in so I should have time to patch up the worst."

"Okay," the man, Tara didn't think his actual name was Stoppable, sighed, "but we really need to get out of here before someone…"

"Sees you?" Tara looked over to see the creepy green woman Shego who was always with the Drakanadian emperor, "oh it's too late for that. I admit you got past the outer lookouts and believe me they're going to know they should have seen you by the time I'm done with them. But you really didn't think you could get here without us knowing it did you?"

"Get Tara out of here Bonnie, I'll deal with the scary green lady and catch up."

"Wait," Tara managed to croak out, "she has magic. She can melt stuff and punch through walls."

"Too late!" Shego snarled as she leapt at the blonde man, he quickly drew a blade from his side but to Tara's surprise Shego's hands stopped dead when they met it instead of going right through.

"Oh a Lotus Blade," Shego slid back, "I've always wanted one of those. I'll enjoy taking it from your cold dead body."

While Shego and the Stoppable guy fought around the courtyard Bonnie dragged Tara to her feet and made for a small door that would let them run along the wall to the woods where the horses were waiting.

Just as Bonnie reached for the doorknob the door burst open throwing Bonnie and Tara on to the ground.

"You're coming with me princess," a blonde woman Tara didn't recognize stood over them, "and it's gonna be freaky!"

"Hell I am," Bonnie pulled a knife from her boot and lunged at the woman, "I've come this far and a half-with lackey isn't stopping me!"

The blonde woman let Bonnie crash into her, twisting to avoid the knife, and flashed a needle from her sleeve that she jabbed into Bonnie's arm.

"That's supposed to do something to me? You'll have to do that like a hundred times to bring me down, I hit you once and you're going… down…" Bonnie's eyes drifted shut and she fell to the ground.

"Sorry princess, looks like you're not freaky enough!" The blonde woman grabbed Bonnie and dragged her out the door.

"Stoppable!" Tara dragged herself to her feet, "They've got Bonnie!"

Tara looked back to see Shego and Stoppable standing a few feet apart, "Well it was fun," Shego said, "but that's my cue to leave. Places to go, things to do, and all that sort of stuff. I'm sure the soldiers on their way right now will keep you plenty busy till they kill you."

"Come on," Stoppable ran over to her, "we'll get our horses and catch up. If they're riding two people to a horse we should be able to catch up before too long. My name's Ron by the way."

Tara followed Ron out the door the blonde woman had taken Bonnie through and down the wall. From the noise up there it was clear Drakanadian soldiers were running to their posts, however Ron and Bonnie had avoided notice coming in Tara didn't think it would work going out.

"This isn't good," Ron muttered, "we can't follow Bonnie if we have half the garrison behind us. Not if we want to make it back to safety anyways."

The sound of voices behind them cut off any reply Tara had, several Drakanadian soldiers swarmed out of the door they had just come out of and immediately started after them.

"That settles it," Ron shouted back as they ran into the trees all the while dodging Drakanadian archers, "we've got to lose these guys first then we can try turning around and going after Bonnie, any idea where they might take her?"

"I don't think they want her dead," Tara found it quite difficult to un-tether a horse with only one hand, "the Drakanadians are very interested in people with magic and ever since they found out Bonnie has magic they dropped the talk of wanting to kill her."

"So a school of some kind then?" Ron started his horse south and Tara followed, "Probably in Drakanada itself, that's going to be fun getting to."

"You'll do it though won't you?" Tara all but pled, "I mean you two came this far just to get me, you can't stop now."

"I'll rescue her if I have to ride to the North Pole. But I can't do it dead and if I let you get hurt Bonnie will kill me when I find her."

Tara kept riding in the wrong direction as the sounds of pursuit echoed behind her.

AN: I passed the Bar Exam! I passed the Bar Exam! I passed the Bar Exam! Did I mention I passed this little test I had to sit at the end of July? Okay, so if this chapter is a bit more neurotic than most I barely slept this week stressing out over results being released. I did tell you this story would be heading into darker territory and I believe this is delivering. I kinda feel sorry that Bonnie accomplished so little in this chapter. I've always tried to write her very much not the damsel in distress and look what I go do to her. Anyways, time for the weekly exhortation to vote. Election day in the US is just 3 ½ weeks away so start clearing your calendar to vote. That said come back same time same place next week.


	22. Win Some Lose Some

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I am Iron Man! I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty One: Win Some Lose Some

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume III, subject Calendar–

Not to be confused with the royal courts calendar which would be more akin to a schedule, a calendar is quite simply a system of organizing days into weeks, months, and years. As the world goes around the sun, conclusions of the heliocentric universe are explained in its entry, in three hundred fifty days the calendar is divided into ten months of five weeks each seven days long. The first two days of the week, Sunsday and Moonsday pay homage to the sun and the moon. Tuesday is named after the mythical hero Týr who it is said founded the city of Middleton over two thousand years ago. Wodan was a legendary peacemaker who supposedly ended the last war between what would become Upperton, Lowerton, and Middleton. In the spirit of this middle ground the middle day of the week is Wodansday. In ancient times the fifth day of the week was a day of penance and reflection that was guided by so called gurus. Gurusday is named for these ancient teachers, legends say [redacted] founder of [redacted] was one of these gurus. One of the states conquered by Drakanada used the word 'vineri' for victory, since the Drakanadians were expelled in the First Invasion on the sixth day of the week the people of the Three Kingdoms changed that day to vineriday as an insult to their would be conquerors. Sabtday comes from 'sabt' or an old name for a village gathering place. As the last day of the week it is generally a day of rest and therefore the day people generally gather together for revelry and festivities.

The calendar most used in the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom is the Unification Calendar. This calendar was promulgated after the unification of the Three Kingdoms and rapidly gained prominence. The Unification Calendar divides years into years Before Unification (BU) and After Unification (AU). In the Rockwall Kingdom at the Foundation Calendar remains technically in use. This calendar counts its years from the foundation of the Rockwall Kingdom. However following the First Invasion as its ties to the Three Kingdoms increased greatly the common people first and then the nobility of the Rockwall Kingdom came to generally use the Unification Calendar. Academics continue to use this calendar for events in the Rockwall Kingdom and the reigns of monarchs in the Rockwall Kingdom continue to be dated with this calendar. However all other business in the Rockwall Kingdom has adapted to use the Unification Calendar.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Even though they hadn't heard the sounds of pursuit for some time Ron and Tara kept riding south. Despite her near continuous protestations to the contrary a look at her said Tara was in no condition to be mounting a rescue attempt never mind the fact that she had no training whatsoever that could be of use in pitched combat. Much as he didn't want to admit it Ron wasn't in any particular condition to be mounting a rescue either. While their fight had been more or less even Shego had left him with a nasty cut across his right leg. Nothing nearly so bad as what Killigan had done to him back at the start of the war but it would leave a nasty scar and Ron needed time for it to heal before fighting Shego again. After the amount of planning that went into Bonnie's abduction he had no doubt that when, not if, he managed to find Bonnie Shego would be there as well.

Ron and Tara had been riding for three days, not nearly at the breakneck pace he and Bonnie had set in their ride north. Neither the horses nor their riders could keep that pace up, which meant it was probably still another two days to the only place Ron knew of in the Rockwall Kingdom they could safely rest. Of course that was assuming they didn't run into advancing soldiers from the Three Kingdoms or less fortuitously retreating soldiers from Drakanada intent on ruining as much of the Rockwall Kingdom as they could.

They'd paralleled the mountains as much as possible; Ron didn't know the exact way back to Felix's village, just that it was close to the eastern mountains in the southern part of the kingdom. And taking the roads that would definitely lead them there was too risky for obvious reasons. Ron just hoped the village was still there. In the First Invasion retreating Drakanadian troops had razed whatever they couldn't take with them and Ron expected them to do the same in this war if they had the opportunity.

"I know I haven't gotten out in awhile," Ron looked back at Tara, "But everything is so quiet around here. Usually at this time of year the woods would be full of hunters and fishermen trying to stock up meat for drying to last the winter."

"It's the Drakanadians," Ron replied, "from what I've heard they've restricted travel since they invaded. I haven't heard anything lately but with the attack I'd expect they're putting even more restrictions in place. That and I don't really need to tell you how they enforce their laws."

"Yeah," Tara rubbed at her injured hand, "I hope you don't mind my asking but what's been happening in the world the last few months? I could listen in on what the Drakanadians were thinking but even if they weren't lying to themselves I don't exactly trust them."

"Well not to sound impolite but the war has kinda been taking up everyone's time," Ron said, "as far as I know the people of the Rockwall Kingdom are on the verge of a revolt and the resistance was going to try to use the attack to push them over the edge. Like you said we haven't seen anyone so I don't know how that's working. I know there are other things in the works but since I was coming up here where I could be captured no one told me."

"I suppose that makes sense, I just hope all that intelligence I've been smuggling out has been some kind of help. When I found out they had a spy reading just as much of our intelligence it made me feel useless."

"That reminds me," Ron stopped his horse, "when you sent that bit about the other spy, there was a second page. That didn't get through to us, the messenger was caught and had to destroy it to keep the Drakanadians from finding it."

"No," Tara went deathly pale, "the Drakanadians are planning their own invasion at Upperton. They know the Three Kingdoms is planning an attack of their own so they want to destroy that army when they land. If they can keep all the soldiers up here busy they'd have an open path to wherever they want in the Three Kingdoms. When I was caught they hadn't decided if they wanted to make for Lowerton and cut off the Rockwall Kingdom or drive straight for Middleton. It sounded like they were waiting to see how this attack went and what condition their own invasion force was in."

"Wow that's bad," Ron stumbled for a response, "when are they landing? I mean it's still two days to safety, a day and a half if we push it. Then the news has to get to Upperton and even by fast horse that's over another week. Can we even warn them in time?"

"I don't know," Tara said quietly, "They said they were waiting on a signal from their spy in Upperton that everything was ready. If that piece of information got through then who knows what's happened in Upperton. Especially since it takes so long for news to get here from there, for all we know they're fighting in Upperton right now."

"But wouldn't that be a good thing?" Ron asked, "If they know the spy is there they can find him and keep that signal from going out. Then the navy will find the Drakanadians and sink their invasion force."

"I don't know," Tara started her horse again, "the Drakanadians were careful not to name their spy even in internal communications. And I where I was I could read the Drakanadians anti-espionage measures for a long time, it kept me one step ahead of them until not too long ago. So for all I know the Drakanadian spy was responsible for passing that bit of intelligence along or for hunting down the spy and they're still there waiting to send out that signal."

"We need to get back in touch with the Three Kingdoms in a hurry then," Ron sped his horse up, "with luck we'll run into friendly soldiers soon and get a message on the way."

Tara followed suit speeding up and the plunged further into the woods.

A day and a half later two weary travelers led their horses through the outskirts of a small village carved from the woods, no one came out to greet them. No one had dared come out of their houses for some time. Ron wasn't entirely sure this was where he wanted to be, after all the last time he'd been here other concerns had weighed heavier on his mind than the scenery.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Tara brought her horse up alongside him, "it's so quiet."

"I'm not sure," Ron put voice to what he had just been thinking, "I was only here once before and that wasn't exactly a sightseeing tour."

"Hold it right there friend," Ron looked to see a big blonde man standing in a doorway with a crossbow trained on him, "we don't get a lot of travelers these days, why don't you two get off your horses, get rid of your weapons, and we'll have a little talk about who you are and what you're doing here."

"Brick?" Tara said, "Is that you?"

"Tara?" Ron all of a sudden realized the blonde man looked familiar, though he didn't lower his weapon, "are you actually alive?"

"I know you," Ron pointed at his might be attacker, "you and that guy in the wheelchair were here the last time I was here."

"I recognize you," Brick finally lowered the crossbow, "where's Bonnie? Is she safe?"

Ron's dismount was stiff from his injuries and so much time in the saddle, "we need to talk, is there a place we can put our horses?"

After tying up their horses Ron and Tara were taken to a small house and given their first warm meal in quite awhile.

"So you're our spy," Ron looked to see the other person he knew in the village wheeling into the small house, "I guess we owe you a few days straight of saying thank you."

"No big," Tara said around a mouthful of stew, "sticking it to Connie, Lonnie, and the Drakanadians was its own reward. And speaking of sticking it to them I need paper and ink if I'm going to get that page that was lost to where it can do some good."

"Was it important?" Felix wheeled up to them.

"If any page I sent out had to go missing this is the very last one I would have picked. It said that the Drakanadians are planning to land at Upperton and destroy the invasion force there."

"Wow that's bad," Felix looked glad he was already sitting down.

"That's exactly what I said," Ron's laugh held little humor, "and not to sound ungrateful or anything but do you have a place where we can sleep? I need to head out just as soon as I can rest and heal up, a few days at most."

"No problem," Brick stepped in from outside, "if you're heading back south though you're probably just as good waiting here. From what we can gather the Drakanadian lines held for about two days but they've been giving ground since and it's speeding up. Shouldn't take too long before it's a full on rout and your own soldiers catch up to you."

"That's definitely good to hear," Ron slid his chair back, "but I need to go north actually."

"Another mission to hurt the Drakanadians?"

"Not quite," Ron mumbled, "."

Ron had seen a great deal of terrifying sights in his life and thought he had built up quite a tolerance. When Brick walked up to loom over and glower down upon him Ron was disabused of that notion.

"Care to repeat that again?" Brick growled, "I thought I heard something I really didn't like."

"I'm pretty sure you heard right," Ron smiled wanly, "but I think I know where they might be taking her so I can go get her."

"Well that's good for you," Brick said, "as soon as you're rested up we're going north and we're coming back dead or with the princess."

"We?"

"You don't think you can sneak through however much of Drakanada you're going to have to go through. And the Drakanadians never let anyone travel alone so you'll need someone else to keep up any kind of disguise. Tara's in no condition to go and Felix is going to have to help her get that message out. So that means we're going on a little trip you and I."

-Upperton-

Josh very much doubted he would ever make more than an abysmal swordsman on his own. On his good days with luck and the stars properly aligned he might aim for the lofty heights of mediocrity under his own skill. The previous owners of the Lotus Blade were another matter entirely, when Josh let them run the show he could barely believe that he was actually doing what he watched himself do. It was of course only his body that was performing those amazing feats, he doubted his mental imprint would contribute a thing to future owners of this sword. No one else knew his sword was in any way special and anyone watching him would never believe if he told them from the way he was flailing about barely managing to not cut himself. With his luck though if someone did see him it would likely be spun as some sort of cunning plan to defeat the Drakanadians and only further inflate his entirely undeserved legend.

Josh was out here making a fool of himself because it was either this or be tempted to let the previous owners of the Lotus Blade ply their craft on Erik. They hadn't made any progress in finding the saboteur, not least because Josh thought the saboteur was in charge of the search alongside him. Unfortunately if Erik was the Drakanadian spy he was very good at what he did. Despite having the map of where the sabotage was happening and a note of when it was happening Josh couldn't find a pattern of the attacks and he didn't have enough faith in his skulking ability to try following Erik to see if he could catch the man in the act.

"That's an interesting way to warm up for practice," Josh looked back towards the main building to see Kim leaning against the doorway, "not how I'd expect a great war-hero to warm up but I already told you I care more about results."

"That was practice," Josh mumbled, "I've been saying I'm nowhere near the unstoppable warrior everyone thinks I am."

"Wait," Kim walked into the small practice yard with anger sprouting on his face, "you mean you've been lying to me all this time? Leading me on that you were some sort of great war-hero and you're barely competent to hold a sword? What else have you been keeping from me, is Erik doing all your work around here?"

"I'm actually pretty good at fighting a war behind a desk," Josh slid the practice blade back in its scabbard and took it over to the wall, "that's why your father pulled me from the trenches and sent me here. Plus I haven't been lying to you, every time you've brought up all my 'accomplishments' I've said they were exaggerations, I'm not a good soldier, and you shouldn't believe anything all the bards and minstrels are shouting."

"You're saying my dad knew all the stories about you were flat out lies?" Kim looked at him in disbelief.

"Yeah," Josh returned her gaze, "like I said, that's why he pulled me from the trenches and sent me here. He figured my luck up there could only hold out so long and back here all the publicity I have can still help the war effort while I can actually do work I'm good at behind a desk."

"That's…" Kim was obviously working Josh's answer over in his head, "Okay so I can believe that you're telling the truth when you say that behind a desk you can do good work. And I guess that means you're probably doing your own work. But you can't expect me to believe I've never flat out asked you if all the stories about you were true and you didn't say yes."

"You've asked me to tell you the real version of all the stories about me several times," Josh said calmly, "I always said it was someone else who did it and half the time I wasn't even there. The bards writing everything down for the newscriers back in the cities just heard about heroics and assumed I did it. The men in my squad were amused by it and just sort of went along even after I asked them not to."

"I…" Kim sputtered, "well okay… argh I miss the days of tyrannical rule. Fine I'll make up the yelling at you, you can… I don't know just think of something."

"Take me and Erik off investigating the saboteur," Josh replied immediately, "I keep saying we're the last two people you want looking into that."

"Not happening," Kim sighed, "but if it'll make you feel better in a few days I'll be going out with the fleet to practice landing exercises. I'll take Erik with me and you can search all his stuff while we're gone. If you find something that makes me think he's working for the Drakanadians we'll deal with him but promise me that if you don't find anything you drop this and put everything towards finding the real saboteur."

Josh hesitated only a few seconds before sticking out his hand.

AN: You all deserve a breather after the last chapter so I give you this. I'm sure you can tell that the remaining chapters will be quite busy for everyone. And just because I'm mean and I want to keep your stress levels up, of the six main characters at least one will not live to see the end of the story. I'm on the fence about letting another one live and of course no clues who lives and who dies. With that cheery news out of the way I remind you that Election Day in the US is two and a half weeks away. Get informed and vote! Next week my endorsements!


	23. The Long Road

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: It's a bird! It's a plane! I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty Two: The Long Road

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XIII, subject Miscellaneous–

This particular entry will cover various important technological developments prior to the Second Invasion. Namely it will cover the wheelbarrow, the printing press, and the compass.

The wheelbarrow originated around AU 427 in the fish markets of Upperton. This simple device, quite literally a wooden container mounted on one or two wheels allowed for humans to move considerable amounts of material without the need for draft animals or other expensive mechanical solutions. This device quickly spread and gained immense popularity among more labor intensive professions such as construction workers and various smiths. The development of the wheelbarrow coincided with the last great population and construction boom prior to the Second Invasion. Whether the wheelbarrow enabled this expansion or was created as a response to the expansion remains an area of lively debate.

The printing press was developed in AU 380 in response to an increase in manuscript demand from various sectors of the economy. Universities were expanding enrollment and the armed forces were demanding ever larger numbers of more precise maps. While reasonably accurate and somewhat speedy, copying by hand had fallen behind demand by AU 200. The printing press was eventually developed in response to this with a surface on which inked blocks can be placed that are then pressed onto blank sheets of paper transferring that ink in a mirror image. New coats of ink are easily applied to the blocks on the printing surface and paper can be moved as fast as the printer can manage. The development of the printing press has led to somewhat of a standardization of the various dialects spoken throughout the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom as well as a small boom in cartography to ensure the maps going to print are as accurate and up to date as possible.

The compass was invented shortly after the First Invasion, the earliest record of what we would consider to be a modern compass appears in AU 89. Some scholars have thus suggested that the compass belongs in developments of the First Invasion but the primitive directional mechanisms in use then were vastly improved upon by early modern compasses. The compass was integral to the first circumnavigation of the globe in AU 176 as it allowed those first primitive explorers to maintain a relatively steady heading while hopping from island to island on their voyage. Compasses consist of a small needle of magnetic metal drawn to the eastern edge of the world by magnetism. What force is responsible for this magnetism to the east is unknown but every journey to the eastern islands reports that at some point their compass begins to become less effective until they move away from it. Numerous expeditions have attempted to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon without success.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

"It's so quiet and empty here," Brick looked around the foreboding Drakanadian landscape, "this isn't creeping you out even a little bit?"

"It's plenty creepy," there was no one in sight for miles yet Ron kept his voice down, "but I've been here before so it's probably less creepy to me than you and I've learned how to not let it show as much."

"Whatever," Brick kept looking as though he expected half the Drakanadian army to jump out of the sparse foliage dotting the otherwise bare countryside, "I just want to get Bonnie and get out of here as fast as we can. Speaking of which we've been in Drakanada for four days and you still haven't told me where you think she's being held."

"Yeah I don't actually know where she's being held, but," Ron quickly added as Brick's face clouded over with anger, "I do think I know where we can find out. If the Drakanadians do one thing well it's keep centralized records of _everything_. Bonnie's probably been held long enough for someone to make a record of it, and even if she hasn't I bet there's a record of their plan somewhere. That plan or record is probably going to tell us where she is or give us a list of places she might be sent."

"Okay then," Brick pondered Ron's semblance of a plan, "I guess if you've been here before, made it out, and know what we're doing this time let's just hope it goes as well as last time."

"About that," Ron grimaced, "last time I was here the person I came in with didn't make it out and I was unconscious for a few weeks."

"So… we want to do better than last time," Brick visibly blanched, "much better than last time."

"That's what I'm thinking," Ron absently rubbed the scar on his back where an arrow from a horse archer had made it through his armor all those months ago, "at least the getting in part is easy. The Drakanadians can't really process that someone who looks like they belong where they are might not actually be what they look like. With a little luck they're keeping Bonnie away from anywhere and by the time word gets to someone who can chase us we're halfway back to the Rockwall Kingdom. If the attack is still going as well as it was when we left the Drakanadians might not even have control of the northern forts."

"Two things," Brick said bluntly, "one, if the Drakanadians don't have the forts there's still going to be a lot of them milling around north of there so we might want to think of another way back. And two, I don't plan to leave anyone alive wherever they're holding Bonnie to send word back."

"The Drakanadians didn't plan on leaving me alive to send word back that they were attacking," Ron replied, "I don't think we're going to get lucky enough to silence all of them either. But that is a good point about another way back, while we're in the capital looking for wherever Bonnie is we'll have to look for a map that can show us the north side of the Rockwall Mountains."

"Don't you just love how plans come together," Brick chuckled without humor, "the Drakanadians probably spent weeks planning how to kidnap Bonnie. We thought out how to rescue her in a few minutes on horseback."

"It's not going to be that easy, it never is."

"Yeah."

-Rockwall Kingdom, eight days earlier-

"No way," Tara slapped her good hand against the table for emphasis, "in the first place it's plain wrong. And second it can't work, this is going to go wrong eight ways to Sabtday."

"There aren't any good choices here," Ron sighed, "only bad ones and worse ones. People are going to start asking questions about Bonnie soon, word that we went north can't stay quiet for long. Most people are going to assume it was to help spark a revolt, but the revolt has sparked and Bonnie should be heading back to safety now. But it's pretty clear to all of us here that she can't do that so this is our only choice."

"No one would ever believe that Bonnie would leave me running the Rockwall Kingdom with her gone," Tara shook her head vigorously enough that her hair nearly wrapped itself around her, "I know that in a place as small as the Rockwall Kingdom there's no nobility aside from the royal family to speak of. But I'm just a maid, I can only read and write because Bonnie taught me how to. Why in the world would Bonnie pick me to handle everything?"

"Because you're not just a maid," Brick leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, "you're her best friend. Plus everyone knew you were going to be Bonnie's master of house when she left the castle. One of the things a master of house does is run the place when the lady of the house is gone. Now that Bonnie is next in line for the throne that makes the whole kingdom her house and when she's gone you get to run it."

"Even if I did do this, and I'm not saying I'm going to," Tara grumbled, "just one letter isn't going to cut it. Especially if Bonnie isn't handing it over herself, how would we get around that little detail?"

"Easy," Ron smiled, "I can write a letter myself. I'm technically a captain in the Three Kingdoms and I was escorting Bonnie everywhere. So if I write a letter to the army backing up everything you put in the letter from Bonnie you're going to forge it'll work."

"And," Felix joined in the conversation, "I'm on the village council here, I can get more than enough people to come forward saying Bonnie announced her plan of going after her sisters even if it took her into Drakanada to everyone. Then Bonnie would have a good reason to be out of contact with everyone and they'd believe she'd want you running everything till she got back."

"It can work," Brick piled on the pressure, "I've seen how similar your handwriting is to Bonnie's. The first letter we got of intelligence you were smuggling out I had to remind myself Bonnie was heading south it looked so much like her handwriting. And if Ron's letter isn't enough I'll put something in writing as the head of Bonnie's guard. This is making the best of a bad situation and we can put up enough evidence to convince anyone that Bonnie put you in charge."

"Look, even if this did work I really don't know what to do if I'm in charge. Bonnie did have me starting to do some stuff like setting her appointments and I looked at the books of the land her parents were going to give her once or twice but I don't know how to run a household yet, let alone a kingdom."

"Not a problem," Felix wheeled over to Tara, "I know how to help run a village and if you want I can go to the capital with you and help out."

"Paper," Tara said after a long pause, "I'm going to need paper, and ink and a quill to pull this off. So are the rest of you, Felix you need to write something up that says you and at least one other person witnessed Bonnie writing the letter giving me power. It's the law that something like that has to be witnessed by two people, I can't do it because I'm the person power is being 'handed to' and Ron and Brick can't because guards aren't allowed to witness things like that. So think of someone in the village you can get to sign that or whose signature you can forge really well."

The next morning as Ron and Brick were packing their horses to leave for Drakanada a small party of soldiers from the Three Kingdoms stumbled upon the village. As luck would have it the detachment was led by a second lieutenant and before long Ron's 'commission' as a captain had the soldiers back on their way with the forged documents purporting to put Tara in charge of the Rockwall Kingdom until Bonnie returned.

"You know this needs to work," Brick said to Ron as the two set off, "if we don't succeed we're going to be too dead to know it but Felix and Tara just committed a coup d'état, I don't know about the Three Kingdoms but I'm pretty sure that's punishable by execution here."

"Well," Ron said after awhile of silence, "last time I pulled Tara from the execution yard. Let's just keep it from getting that far this time."

"Let's"

-Upperton-

Running through the halls towards Erik's room Josh bit back several curses at just how a day that had started with such promise had turned so sour. Kim and her erstwhile bodyguard had left early that morning for the fleet exercises and wouldn't be back until late in the evening, plenty of time for Josh to thoroughly search Erik's room and find whatever incriminating evidence was hiding there. That plan had suffered its first setback when a messenger found him and handed him a letter from Dr. Bortel and Wade wanting to demonstrate their latest improvements with fire powder. As much as Josh wanted to ignore the letter he knew very much so how important fire powder was to the Three Kingdoms winning the war. Biting back the first of his curses Josh went to the stable and from there to the walled compound where the scientists worked. That had eaten up his entire morning for all practical purposes but Josh had to admit that the latest batch of fire powder was a significant improvement. If they could find a way to harness it beyond primitive bombs Josh thought it might well render the type of warfare he knew obsolete. But the experiments with firing projectiles out of long tubes had a long way to go yet. Most of the time the back of the tube blew out and the ball in the tube went only a few tens of feet out the front. Even when the rare tube didn't explode they became fouled with powder residue quickly and on top of that were nearly impossible to aim.

Josh had instructed to two of them to keep working towards solutions to those problems and promised them continued funding for their work. His morning not quite wasted Josh returned to the rambling complex of buildings that made up the administrative headquarters of Upperton. He had intended to go straight to Erik's room but his stomach had let him know he hadn't broken fast that morning and a curious passerby stumbling onto his search because his stomach betrayed him and growled at the wrong moment would ruin the whole scheme he had in his mind. Going for lunch had been his second mistake and Josh had no one to blame but himself for the loss of another golden opportunity to get the evidence he so desperately needed to put Erik behind bars. There hadn't been anything wrong with lunch; smoked fish glazed with honey had along with fruit and a mug of ale gone a long way towards filling the hole in his middle. What had sent his afternoon into the depths of failure had been when the three generals Kim derisively called Team Impossible had walked into the mess hall just as Josh was finishing his lunch. In the plain unadorned mess hall there was no hope of avoiding the three unless Josh threw himself under a table and hoped beyond hope they didn't spot him. Most unfortunately before the thought to do so had finished forming in his head the three of them were already headed towards his table.

An afternoon with no break from the three of them had made Josh realize why Kim had such a short temper of late. Minutiae that would fall apart within five minutes of the landing in Drakanada ate up hours that Josh didn't have to spare. His protests of experience as grounds for saying the intricate and detailed plans weren't worth the paper and ink that went into them only seemed to drive the three generals to try and push their plans on him harder in hopes that he could bring Kim around. Josh finally realized that getting Kim to shoot this nonsense down would be as simple as telling her Team Impossible had made some suggestions. Having realized that fact far later than he should have Josh gathered up all the papers generated over the afternoon, told the three he would run it by Kim and was out the door before they had the opportunity to raise a protest.

Josh had run to the office he and Erik shared and dumped the papers on his desk, the sun was starting to get low in the sky. Less time than he wanted to search Erik's room but still more than enough time to have a squad of soldiers waiting at the docks to take him into custody. Josh started by searching Erik's desk in their shared office, he didn't find anything but he would have been amazed if he had found something. Erik was nothing if not smart and Josh didn't think the man would be stupid or careless enough to leave papers laying out his evil plans on his desk. Just as he closed the last drawer on the desk with a sigh Josh heard a commotion from several building over, a look out the window chased all thoughts of searching Erik's quarters from Josh's mind. Thick black smoke poured from an outbuilding and people were already racing to form bucket lines. The unlucky building was little more than a storage shed for the groundskeepers, what was in there that could have set the building on fire kept nagging at the back of Josh's mind as he helped ferry water to the men throwing the buckets on the building. For obvious reasons though the question did no more than nag at the back of Josh's mind for the better part of an hour till the last smoldering embers were extinguished. Josh was getting desperately short of time but as the highest ranking person it fell to him to sort out the chaos and start investigating what had caused the fire.

That took Josh to running through the halls nearly tripping as he slid to a stop in front of Erik's door. A quick look out the window told Josh that the sky was getting ever darker. Most likely Kim and Erik were already back on land and heading back. Skipping the obvious hiding places Josh started rifling through the small collection of books for extra papers stashed within. More precious time later Josh had to hold himself back from throwing the last book down in disgust. Looking around in ever increasing desperation Josh's eye was drawn to a pile of clothes in a corner of the room. For someone otherwise almost fussily precise a pile of clothes was very much out of the ordinary. Ruffling through the clothes yielded nothing until backed up against the very corner of the room a small box closed only with a latch. Thanking whatever providence had made Erik not use a key Josh opened up the box and hurriedly read the few papers within. The burning shed was some sort of signal to Erik but what Erik was supposed to do with that signal was beyond Josh. The papers were intentionally vague, most likely so in case someone like Josh found them the damage would be minimized. Still this was more than enough to throw Erik into the deepest dungeon in the Three Kingdoms for the rest of his life. Josh would even have to look at Camille Léon again to see if she was really guilty after this.

The ringing of the evening bell reminded Josh that he didn't have time to plan only act. Dashing out into the hall he realized that Kim had said she would be back before the evening bell. That Josh hadn't run into Erik yet probably meant the man was with the princess probably having received whatever signal the burned shed was supposed to send out. If that was the case Josh would likely need the Lotus blade to take on Erik but getting the Lotus Blade would leave Erik alone with Kim for a dangerously long time. Grimacing Josh made his decision and took off down the hall at the dead sprint.

-Somewhere-

Screams echoed down the dim hallway seeming to add to the gloom already created by far too few torches lining the hallways. Even without the screams no visitor to this place, and there were precious few of those, would think this a place anything good happened. In one particular spot the darkness was driven back by light spilling from an open doorway, here there were plenty of torches to give light and here the screams originated from.

"Just give in princess," Shego trailed a glowing, crackling hand across a stone slab inches from Bonnie's head, "you know you want to."

"Side with you psychos?" Bonnie spat between gasps for breath, "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"

Shego just laughed as she grabbed Bonnie's arms and her hands light up. Bonnie jerked tight in her restraints as renewed screams echoed out into the halls.

"This is supposed to make me evil?" Bonnie spoke only after gasping for breath the better part of a minute, "You invade my kingdom, do things I don't even want to think about to my people, kill my parents, let my sisters indulge their little tastes on everyone they can reach, and torturing me is supposed to make me join up with you?"

"Torture?" Shego laughed before fixing Bonnie with a particularly serious look, "This isn't torture, it's education. You've been held back for so long by fools that you don't even realize your powers give you far more right to rule than your blood ever did. Those 'healing' powers of yours can be used to take life like you can't even imagine. A touch and a thought and both your sisters would drop dead at your feet. But you need to feel that power firsthand to really appreciate it. You'll realize in time that good, evil, they're just labels people stick on things. If we had won the first invasion your armies wouldn't be remembered as heroes holding back the barbaric hordes, they'd be backwards remnants trying to hold back the advance of civilization."

"Whatever you're drinking I want a keg of it," Bonnie laughed back at her captor, "it must be some good stuff if you honestly think I'd ever buy into any of that."

"You will," Shego held up a brightly glowing hand, "that short temper of yours, pride, always pushing everything, there's more of us in you than you care to admit. You want to feel the kind of power you have inside you, I can tell. And when you ask to serve us it's going to be because you want to, not because of anything else."

The brightly glowing hand came down and screams began to pour once more out into the dark halls.

Ron jerked awake, covered in sweat and tangled in his travel blanket. The fire he and Brick had made had long since cooled to barely glowing embers and with the moon not out that night the sky was studded with points of light. Though a gray sky in the east said that morning was on its way. Knowing he wouldn't get any more sleep Ron walked over to the fire and started adding wood to it. Once he had a decent fire going again he walked down to the creek near the camp to bring back water for boiling. All the while he kept thinking back to the dream he had woken from. The question kept running through his mind if in fact it had been a dream. Sensei had told him that when two people with magical abilities spent lots of time around one another they could form a sort of link that occasionally allowed intense emotions to flow between the two. The sheer volume of people at Yamanouchi prevented such bonds from forming but both he and Bonnie had magic and they had spent a lot of time using their powers around one another. Also if that had been a call for help across whatever link they had it certainly counted as intense emotions.

Returning to camp Ron set the water over the fire to start boiling and sat down staring into the flames. The more he thought about it the more he was sure that somehow he had seen what Bonnie was going through. Thinking back to his conversation with Sensei, Ron remembered that the old man had told him links were entirely subconscious. Communication was impossible through them, only feelings and apparently visions or perhaps memories like what Ron had received. Now aware of it the feeling was almost like someone standing over his shoulder just out of sight. When Ron turned northeast the feeling somehow became stronger, as though he should be able to see whoever was standing behind him. As much as he didn't want to trust a vague feeling that he might know where Bonnie was being held if there was any truth to his dream than he and Brick didn't have time to go to the Drakanadian capital, look through rooms of records and then go to Bonnie.

"Wake up," Ron shook Brick awake just as the sun was cresting the eastern horizon, "let's get going."

"I'm up," Brick groggily fumbled around, "thought we were going to take it a bit easier today. The horses can't keep this pace forever and neither can we."

"I know where Bonnie is," Ron had already walked away from his companion and started saddling the horse, "I boiled water if you need something to drink."

"You know where Bonnie is?" Brick was suddenly awake, "Care to explain how that slipped your mind for so long."

"I just found out," Ron sighed, "I can't really explain it but we both have magic. And sometimes people with magic who spend a lot of time together can get a peek into the other person's mind. I think I got one into Bonnie's mind last night and I think I know where she is. If my peek was right we don't have time to go look up where she is."

"Then let's go," Brick said as he stuffed his blanket into his travel pack, "I've seen more than enough crazy stuff during this war to think you knowing where Bonnie is from a dream is impossible."

Fifteen minutes later two men on horseback rode north as the sky continued to grow lighter.

AN: First a typo from last chapter, there are seven main characters but one of them is still going to bite it. Second, when I said this story wouldn't hit 100,000 words I may have to revise that assessment, at this rate I think it might hit 6-digits. Last, the endorsements for the election you've been waiting for.

[Candidate name deleted] is trying to confuse you on the issues by attacking [Candidate name removed]. But [Candidate name deleted] won't tell you that [gender pronoun removed] supports [things antithetical to reader]. [Candidate name removed] supports [reader's values] and wants to pass laws making it easier to [reader's favorite activity].

[Candidate name removed] is the only candidate making a stand for [reader's values].

I'm [Candidate name removed], and I approved this message.

Paid for by the Vast [reader's preferred political leanings] Wing Conspiracy.


	24. Fond Farewells

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: For the twenty fourth time… I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty Three: Fond Farewells

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XI, subject Knight–

It is unknown exactly when the first horse was domesticated. Likewise it is unknown when some early horse rider first engaged in combat from atop his mount. Since long before the First Invasion men have ridden to battle then dismounted for the actual fighting. This allowed armies to cover more ground in a day while remaining fresh in combat situations. Similarly horse borne scouts have been used almost as long as warfare and its practice have been recorded. Lightly armed and armored they were and are capable of covering great distances and returning quickly enough to make their intelligence relevant to their commanders. Slightly more heavily armed and armored raiders have been used for some time to slip around lines and burn baggage trains, sack camps, and in more daring raids attack artillery emplacements behind the main line of battle. These warriors are considered true knights by none but are important as a beginning in the evolution of mounted warfare that led to the emergence of the heavily armed and armored warrior we know today as the knight.

The first instance of what could be considered a proto-knight occurred in one of the later wars between what would become the Three Kingdoms. The kingdom of Lowerton, lacking in trained mounts and riders began to armor both in an effort to increase their longevity. The kingdom of Middleton provided the other side of the equation, beginning to equip their riders with spears that allowed a rider to strike beyond the length of his horse. Both of these lacked the ability to use the momentum of the charge as no one had yet developed the stirrup. This invention came along during the eighth year of the First Invasion and allowed horse riders to conduct a proper charge without fear of being flung from their mounts. The development of iron weapons shortly before the First Invasion meant that horsemen on both sides of the conflict were much better armed than their predecessors.

The true modern knight appeared shortly after AU 400 in response to the ever wider use of longbows and crossbows capable of penetrating existing armor as well as the deployment of longer spears by infantry in defensive lines. The two primary responses to this were thicker armor specifically angled to deflect incoming projectiles as well as the development of the lance. Improvements in blast furnace and forging technology allowed for purer iron ores that allowed thicker armor to not weigh its wearer to the point of immobility as well as the ability to shape that armor in more intricate ways. Enabled oddly enough by improvements in the timber harvesting industry the lance was a very large spear often in excess of twelve to fifteen feet. With this weapon a wing of knights could deliver a tremendous amount of force in its initial charge. After this initial charge knights typically resorted to shorter range weapons as the lance is unsuited for short range combat and most knight charges do not permit for withdrawal and regrouping.

-Upperton-

For the first time in a depressingly long while Kim Possible was feeling good about the state of the world. It had taken more months than she cared to admit and more screaming at thick headed politicians and generals than she ever thought possible but today's fleet exercises made her think that things were actually coming together. She and Erik had departed in the early morning and caught a boat out to where the fleet was waiting offshore to practice assaulting the faux defensive works prepared on the flat plains north of Upperton. The actual landing would likely start about the time Kim and Erik had left for the fleet but with the luxury of this not being the real thing the schedule was shifted to make it easier on the men. It wouldn't do to have a large part of the army out with broken ankles suffered in the early morning mist that could be avoided merely by pushing the exercise back a few hours.

As much as Kim and the generals leading the army had fought in the run-up to this moment watching it actually happen had everyone slapping everyone else on the back in a mood of general joviality. The only black spot on the whole day had been Erik who seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and only headed down from there. Kim for a few minutes thought there might have been something to Josh's suspicions, the only way it seemed to her that someone couldn't be in a good mood watching what was waiting for the Drakanadians was if they somehow didn't want that to happen to the Drakanadians. Shaking her head Kim shoved those thoughts aside. She'd clearly been listening to Josh wax paranoid for far too long and it was starting to get to her. The latest casualty lists from up in the Rockwall Kingdom had arrived the day before and if Erik saw a name he recognized on the lists she supposed that would put a black cloud over anything. When she and Erik got back Kim looked forward to Josh having to admit that he hadn't found anything that implicated Erik as a Drakanadian spy and finally having her two right hands start working together rather than against each other as often as not.

The mock landings went as smoothly as Kim could have hoped. The plans she had labored so long and hard to develop could even bear some slight resemblance to what actually happened when there were real Drakanadians in those trenches using real weapons rather than friendly soldiers looking not particularly menacing. In a way the day seemed to drag on watching the soldiers scramble up the beach and 'take' each defensive line by turn until they reached the open country beyond. But in another way it seemed that it had only been minutes between leaving for the fleet in the morning and arriving back in Upperton with the sun blazing low in the western sky. Winters in Upperton were less severe than in Middleton but Kim was still glad for the heavy cloak in her carriage she could drape around her shoulders to hold the chill at bay. A courier waiting at the docks caught Kim up on the business of the day she had missed while out at sea. The most pressing event, if one could call it that, was that a small shed on the grounds of the city administrative buildings had caught fire. While Kim frowned at yet one more thing that had gone wrong on land Erik seemed to respond to the news with a look of almost serenity on his face.

Thankfully the people of Upperton had become more or less used to Kim being in the city and her passage through the streets drew no particular notice. A change for the better from when going anywhere could take hours picking their way through throngs of people trying to get a glimpse of her.

"Princess," Kim looked up not far from surprise, her bodyguard had been so quiet all day she had almost forgotten he had come along, "I'm concerned that the Drakanadians might try to make an attempt on your life. With the progress we're making in the Rockwall Kingdom and preparations for the attack almost complete they'll be looking to score a big hit against us to even out the momentum. Unless they can somehow stop the attack in the Rockwall Kingdom I think trying to kidnap or kill you would be the best way to do that."

"I guess that makes sense," Kim scrunched her forehead in thought, "but I've already got you or one of your men with me almost all day, not to mention the city guards and watch. What more do you think we could do if the Drakanadians wanted to try and kill me?"

"I'm particularly concerned about the next few days," Erik peeled a window curtain back enough to peer out at the street, "the Drakanadians hopefully don't know exactly when we're launching but they have to know its close. If they wait too much longer the attack can and will go forward even without you, but if they can strike in the next few days it could bring the whole operation to a halt. I know I can't stay up that many hours straight but I'd prefer to have someone with you all hours of the day, I'll guard you tonight if you have no objections."

"You're sure you can stay up that long?" Kim asked, "You've been up since early this morning and I'd hate to think you having to run yourself ragged."

"It's no problem," Erik waived her protest off, "I can stay up that long with little difficulty and if it turns out I can't I can get someone else to take over for me. We can discuss that later though, we're here."

Kim pulled back the curtain on her own window to see that they were in fact passing through the fence that surrounded the city administrative complex. Late as it was she wanted nothing more than to eat and then relax before going to bed but there was still plenty for her to do. Josh wasn't waiting for them at the doors with a look of shame on his face, Kim supposed that as long as she had him fess up that he hadn't found anything period it didn't matter very much when he owned up to the fact. At least under Josh's care the whole complex hadn't burned down while she was away and Kim was forced to admit that from the reports she doubted she could have done anything differently about that one building.

A servant was waiting in her suites when Kim and Erik reached them, the kitchens had remained open to prepare whatever she wanted for dinner. Kim sent the servant back to the kitchens to bring up two servings of whatever was left along with something to drink. While she missed the servant already closing the door Kim turning around to ask that Josh be sent to talk to her probably saved her life as she saw Erik draw his sword from his scabbard and lunge at her. The thrust meant to skewer her right through instead left a shallow gash on the inside of her left arm and the outside of her chest.

"What the hell?" Kim jumped backwards to put her desk between her and her supposed bodyguard, "Erik what's wrong with you?"

"Erik," the look on his face was unlike any Kim had ever seen, "I've gone by that name long enough that it's as good as any but where I'm from I'm known as operative nine-oh-one."

"Where you're from…" Kim slowly reached for the rapier she habitually kept behind her desk, "You're Drakanadian."

"Very good Kimberly," Erik leveled the point of his much larger and heavier long sword at her, "I was all for leaving you alive and using you as a puppet after the war. But orders are orders…"

Erik thrust across the desk intending once more to end Kim at a fell swoop. Kim sidestepped the thrust and brought up her own sword to try to thrust the point of her sword through Erik's heavy mail links. Taking a page from what he'd just seen Erik stepped to the side as well and Kim's sword slid harmlessly along the mail protecting his arm.

"Very good," Erik stepped back smiling, "much better than that simpering king and queen in the Rockwall Kingdom. Much more fun to kill southern royals like this."

"You killed Bonnie's parents," Kim made the mistake of stepping out from behind her desk as she gasped in shock.

"Now I'll make it three!" Erik jumped forward with a swing meant to give Kim the last haircut she'd ever have.

Kim ducked under the swing intending to use Erik's momentum to slip her sword into his midsection but seeing her intent he kept his momentum going and sent the two of them sprawling on the floor weapons sliding away.

Kim tried to slide out from under her attacker but even without armor on Erik weighed far more and had more muscle than her. A swift punch to the face from his gauntleted fist sent Kim's head smashing into the stone floor and left her seeing stars. Taking advantage of her incapacity Erik pushed himself to his knees and pulled a knife from his waist. It was much smaller than his sword but more than enough to make sure Kim wouldn't live through the next few minutes if his skill with the sword was anything to go by.

"Nice try," Erik pulled his arm back to plunge the knife down, "but just like your whole kingdom not…" Erik never finished the sentence as eighteen inches of blood soaked steel exploded from his chest. Erik looked over his shoulder in pained surprise to see Josh behind him holding onto the handle of the sword protruding from his chest.

As her guard turned would be assassin slumped down in death Kim had to roll aside to make sure that even as Josh pulled the sword away what was still sticking out didn't hurt her.

"I guess I owe you an apology," Kim rose slowly to her feet, "I take it you found something?"

"Yeah," Josh used Erik's body to wipe his sword clean, "you're not going to like it."

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Tara had been absolutely right that trying to convince everyone that Bonnie had wanted her to take over while she was gone was a bad idea. No one had suspected the forgery, the conspiracy had been too well thought out and Tara's impression of Bonnie's handwriting had almost convinced her at several points that her friend had written the letter. The problem was that as much as she wanted to get back at the Drakanadians Tara was simply too kind-hearted a person to sign the death warrants for collaborators sitting in front of her. The long months of occupation had prompted much of the populace to resist and eventually rise up but it had also bred a number of people only too eager to jump into bed with their new however temporary masters. Many of them had fled north with the retreating Drakanadians and more still denied their neighbors accusations or had some other defense.

But the list of names in front of Tara was already depressingly large, particularly considering the Drakanadians hadn't yet evacuated the capital city and all the people who lived there. Even without the scars that collaboration would leave Tara could already see putting the Rockwall Kingdom back together would be a monumental task. As the allies retreated south they had burned everything they couldn't carry with them to deny it to the Drakanadians. Then once the lines had stabilized and the war seesawed back and forth untold devastation was wrought on that portion of the Rockwall Kingdom. In a place the size of the Three Kingdoms it might not be such a problem but the Rockwall Kingdom was so small that a fair part of it had been converted into two giant army camps tearing the countryside asunder. The Drakanadians in their grudging retreat north had taken a page from their foes and laid waste to land that hadn't even begun to recover from the opening moves of the war.

Sighing Tara pushed away from the table serving as a desk and walked out of the small house presently serving as the regent's castle. Tara had to stifle a laugh walking into the sun that the daughter of a scullery maid who hadn't ever thought she would go much further found herself in charge of a whole kingdom. Her co-conspirators had been right though, with all of them backing up her connection to Bonnie no one had questioned her qualifications for the job. The last two weeks however had made her wish that someone would think to ask the wrong questions at the wrong time just to spare her the unpleasant decisions she was so desperately trying not to make.

"Taking a break?" Tara turned to see Felix wheeling up to her. He'd been as good as his word and had been a great help to Tara in making at least a pretense of knowing what she was doing. Felix's easy going nature let him deflect self important petitioners, of whom there were many, and Tara had quickly learned to send them to him and save herself a fair bit of trouble.

"It's those damn death warrants," Tara wasn't much for swearing but recent experiences had made her a bit more prone to it, "I just can't sign them."

"I was coming over with good news," Felix sighed but I don't think those are going to go away for awhile."

"Good news? Please give it to me; I'd take bad news if it got me away from those things."

"A rider showed up a few minutes ago, apparently the Drakanadian lines around the capital are falling apart. If they don't get out of there now there could be a whole lot of Drakanadian soldiers trapped in the city. That was a few days ago so who knows how far they've fallen back by now."

"That's great," Tara began to smile before a terrible thought dawned on her, "but how many collaborators are there in the city? Oh no that stack is going to get three times as high. It's bad enough having to look at the ones I have now I don't think I can stand that many more."

"They're not going to go away," Felix said, "tell you what I'll see if I can dig up more info on these people. Maybe some of them can just spend a long time in prison and knowing what they actually did to other people might get you to sign a few of those."

"I don't think so," Tara shook her head, "but I won't stop you if you want to."

-Drakanada-

"You're sure this is the place?" Brick looked through the tree branches at what looked like an abandoned mine complex cut into the side of the hills. "Not exactly where I'd pick to train people to use magic."

"I'm sure of it," the itching sensation had been getting stronger for several days now and Ron had on several occasions barely stopped himself from actually trying to scratch at nowhere, "the mining equipment is all broken down but that road is way too heavily travelled. Besides, if I wanted to keep someone somewhere and not have anyone know about it this seems like a pretty good place to do it."

"I guess," Brick kept watching the seemingly abandoned mine, "I don't like that there's only one way in and out though. If anyone spots us coming we could have a hard time getting out, plus we don't know where Bonnie is in there and I don't want to chance wondering around."

"I don't think that we have any choice," Ron crawled up to the hilltop, "that itchy feeling is about as strong as it's going to get. But on the bright side aren't most mines pretty much like a straight line? I'll admit mining is but one of many things I may have skipped over in school but I really can't imagine taking out any more of a mountain than you absolutely have to."

"Good point," Brick pulled the warhammer a Drakanadian soldier wasn't using anymore up the hill a bit, his long sword had broken off in that same hapless Drakanadian soldier some days south, "this snow is going to be the real problem though."

"Thought you wouldn't mind a little cold," Ron chuckled, "we brought winter clothes and I always thought you Rockwall Kingdom people practically lived for the snow and cold."

"I don't mind the cold," Brick's breath came out a puff of fog in the cold, "but if this snow keeps up we're going to start leaving tracks in it. Getting away after we rescue Bonnie is going to be hard enough without the Drakanadians knowing exactly where we're going the whole time."

"That could be a problem," Ron edged closer to the tree line, "it's still pretty early in the day so let's get in there now. If we go fast enough maybe we can get a head start and gain some time before they can track us."

The Drakanadians had cut the mine straight into the hill; the squelch of mud under his boots told Ron why they hadn't cut down to find metals instead. What they were looking for he couldn't have said but by all appearances they hadn't been looking for it for some time. The timbers holding up the mineshaft were weathered but some experimental pokes said that the Drakanadians were indeed still doing maintenance to keep the mountain from coming down.

"They're definitely doing something here," Brick kept peering into the darkness ahead of their torches as he talked, "I hope we find the princess here but even if we don't it looks like we can do something the Drakanadians won't like."

"She's here," Ron adjusted his grip on the Lotus Blade a bit. Both he and Brick had their weapons out and ready for anyone they did find who wasn't Bonnie. Ron had found a sentry just inside the mine entrance, the sentry wouldn't be reporting to anyone ever again but knowing the mine was inhabited had their guard even higher than it had been before if that was possible.

"No way to get us any closer to her highness in here with that new sixth sense of yours? I don't want to count on our luck holding out that no one decides to head outside at the wrong time."

"No can do," Ron frowned in the flickering torchlight, "I know she's in here somewhere but even if this Bonnie tracker thing can get that sensitive I don't know nearly enough about it to make it work like that. Before it started up I thought it was just a bunch of nonsense from the old stories that didn't actually happen in the real world."

"Handy stuff that nonsense," Brick's torch sputtered for a few seconds before returning to its normal flickering glow, "I can't believe we haven't run into anyone in here yet. That sentry up front kinda gave away that there's something going on here and I'd think they'd want to swarm anyone who came in here."

"No one but us would be coming here. And even if the Drakanadians were expecting us to show eventually I don't think they thought we'd come right here."

Ron had long since stopped counting how many times his mystical monkey power had saved his life but he added one more to that numberless tally as he dived sideways just in time for two metal darts to embed themselves in the earth behind him with a dull thunk."

"Freaky," Ron stood up as a blonde woman with short cropped hair stepped into the shadows just outside the circle of light of the torches, "I'd heard you two would be quite a challenge but this is definitely going to be my greatest feat ever!"

"Sorry life then," Brick jumped forward bringing his hammer up in a swing bare inches less wide than the mineshaft. The blonde woman jumped back and her hand whipped out. What she threw was aimed at Ron instead of Brick though. Ron was quite familiar with smoke bombs from his time at Yamanouchi, what exactly was in these bombs he couldn't have said off the top of his head. They did however contain something that left him coughing on the ground with tears streaming from his eyes for the time being.

"Don't have orders to bring you in alive," the blonde woman smiled at Brick, "but you look like a big tough guy. You might live long enough after I'm done with you for Shego or the emperor to decide we can get some use out of you."

Even through blurry eyes Ron could see enough to watch Brick and the blonde woman fight. She was far quicker and more nimble than Brick would ever hope to be, the way she darted in and out for quick blows said she knew that was her road to victory. But Brick had the muscle and skill to use the warhammer the way it was meant to be used, one hit from that would put an end to her. The two seemed at an impasse though. Brick was wearing chainmail and the blonde woman hadn't come with anything to get through that, the boiled leather Ron was wearing yes but not metal. On the other hand with no armor she was far too quick for Brick to hit with the large swings his weapon required. Ron couldn't even tell which one was becoming exhausted faster, Brick was weighed down by armor but the blonde woman was dodging so much it couldn't have been easier for her.

Ron had never been terribly good as far as throwing knives went and the effects of whatever he'd been gassed with weren't doing him any favors but his sight had gone straight enough that he thought he could put the knife he always carried to good use. He'd aimed for her torso but the knife embedding itself in her arm was plenty to send the blonde woman staggering back against a support timber grasping at the wounded appendage. Taking immediate advantage of the situation Brick dropped his torch and taking his hammer in both hands lunged forward. The spike on top of the warhammer meant for just such a move went right through the blonde woman and into the timber behind her.

This particular timber was not as sturdy as its cousin that Ron and Brick had examined earlier. As the blonde woman gasped her life out in surprise a snap echoed up and down the mine shaft and the timber split in half. Reliant on one another for support the whole woodwork collapsed in a pile on Brick and the dead blonde woman. Gas immediately forgotten Ron scrambled to his feet and ran over to the pile of wood ignoring the trickle of earth falling down on him from the roof of the mine.

"Doesn't hurt," Brick gasped out, "guess that's good." Shoving the heavy timber off Ron could see that Brick could easily count the number of breaths he had remaining. His neck was at an angle Ron thought should have killed the man straight off and the labored breathing said several ribs were broken and at least one had punctured a rib. If they'd had Bonnie with them she might have been able to heal Brick, might. Ron had exactly zero chance of that.

"Hang in there man," lying had never come so easy to Ron as it did in that moment, "Bonnie can't be that much farther ahead, I'll go get her and she'll patch you right up."

"Yeah right," Brick was breathing ever slower, "just get her and get out of here."

Ron started to reply that Brick would be fine till he and Bonnie got back but seeing the glassy look in Brick's eyes Ron knew he wouldn't hear anything he said ever again. Ron sighed deeply and slid Brick's eyes closed before picking up the Lotus Blade and walking on.

The mine curved several times as Ron went deeper into the hills, he couldn't imagine how long it had taken the Drakanadians to mine this far back into the hill or how much it had cost in lives and gold. Slowly Ron realized that there was a light at the end of the tunnel he was in, the mine opened up into a gallery of sorts, natural or not Ron couldn't have said. He also realized before that someone was standing in the gallery. As he kept moving forward Ron could tell by the way the air moved that several mine shafts must have converged at the gallery. Nearing the gallery Ron could see that whoever was standing wasn't alone two people were lying at their feet, Ron dearly hoped they weren't just bodies. As he walked into the underground gallery Ron saw that torches lined the walls proving plenty of light, with that light he could also finally make out who it was standing in the center. For some reason though upon seeing Bonnie standing there Ron didn't put the Lotus Blade away, instead he dropped his torch and tightened his grip on his sword.

"Hello Ron," Bonnie's voice sent shivers down his spine, "you just missed a wonderful reunion with my sisters."

AN: You can always tell when it's near the end of one of my stories because the chapters just get longer and longer. In case anyone can't tell by now the blonde woman of the last few chapters is Adrena Lynn. It should be pretty obvious that poor Brick was the main character to catch an acute case of dead, still on the fence about one other character. I don't normally plug myself but I churned out this behemoth despite being sworn in as an attorney this week and then partying hardy. Then I archive binged The Guild and There Will Be Brawl while writing this, just watch either of those and try to be productive, I dare you. Lastly you should all know this by now but Election Day in the US is on Tuesday, if you don't vote then I shall call down a pox on your descendants to the seventh generation!


	25. The Hour's Now Come

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Say it with me people, I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty Four: The Hour's Now Come

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XXI, subject Urbanization–

The Three Kingdoms reached an apogee of urbanization immediately prior to the First Invasion. Efficient administration as well as advances in agriculture had created a surplus of food sufficient to allow many people to live in cities seeking the riches that accumulate there. While no exact records exist from the time it is believed that the cities of Lowerton, Upperton, and Middleton each had populations in excess of one hundred thousand persons. The devastation of the First Invasion greatly reduced this trend towards urbanization and the famine and disease that followed in its wake only exacerbated this situation. Estimates are varied but in the aftermath of the First Invasion it is believed somewhere from a third to a half of the survivors perished from famine or disease. This loss of workforce was a catastrophe almost as dire as the war itself. The population fell below the necessary level to sustain a large urban populace and many people returned to the fields. Also with the loss of industrial output farming reverted from a surplus based industry to subsistence level. Sparse records from AU 100 lead to estimates of the population of Lowerton at twelve thousand, the population of Upperton at twenty thousand, and the population of Middleton at eighteen thousand. Given the known levels of loss of overall population we can conclude that the once proud cities must have been nearly deserted to feed the dwindling population and that only trickles of food made it into the cities. It is believed that local fishing and ranching allowed Upperton and Middleton respectively to maintain a larger population than Lowerton which was far more dependent on food imports.

By AU 512, the year of the Second Invasion, the population of the Three Kingdoms had more than recovered and the cities were bursting with more life than ever. An overall population of approximately twenty six million found almost a quarter million in Middleton, roughly one hundred ninety thousand in Upperton and one hundred seventy five thousand in Lowerton. In addition many smaller cities boast populations of several tens of thousands. This is generally attributed to advancements in agricultural technology, those advancements are covered elsewhere in this work, as well as stable central authority allowing the free flow of goods. This ability to trade allows regions to specialize the types of goods they grow, typically regions choose the goods and crops they can best grow in the largest quantities. This generates surpluses that have allowed for a ballooning of urban populations. It is believed that the population of Middleton first passed two hundred thousand in AU 406 marking an important milestone as modern population had measurably surpassed that of pre-First Invasion times. Along with the rise of population in cities and towns came a great increase in the number of educated persons as well as industrial output. This was reflected in rising university enrollment as well as the establishment of several new universities along with greatly increased production of goods for household use. One final and most important indication of increased urbanization was the construction of new houses in all levels of settlement. With the steady increase of population younger children, particularly sons, could not remain at the family dwelling much past adulthood, many left to till new land and more still left for towns and cities. All these new people needed places to live and cities expanded appropriately, this provided not only new places to live but steady employment for a large number of newcomers to urban life.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

"The pillaging, raiding, and looting have to stop."

"But my lady, it's how warfare is done. We deny supplies to the Drakanadians, and we can deal with those who collaborated very swiftly."

"No," Tara's left hand would never be as flexible as it was before she'd gotten a knife through it but it was plenty healed enough that when she wanted to pound on a table she could do so with both hands, "if we were in Drakanada I would understand completely and I'd probably be encouraging you to give them a taste of the kind of war they've inflicted on us twice. But these are soldiers of the Rockwall Kingdom in the Rockwall Kingdom. We're going north liberating our people not conquering and terrorizing them."

"I think I'm not putting this right. With the Drakanadians forced out of their trenches the lines between armies are much more fluid and porous, our raiders are only doing so in territory still controlled by the Drakanadians. I assure you they are taking whatever can be carried away and burning the rest, we have to think of this land and its material as already lost to us one way or another and it is only prudent we make sure the Drakanadians cannot have it either."

"I suppose that makes sense," Tara wondered how Bonnie did this her whole life, so many people all giving advice doubtless presented to further their own goals and make them look good in the process, "but I've been going over these after action reports and the needless violence is just appalling. I get that the Drakanadians aren't going to welcome them with open arms but do your men really need to be going through villages like this? I don't see why we can't let the villagers gather what they can carry then have them hide out in the woods or countryside till the Drakanadians leave and then return to what's left of their homes."

"It would wake time, the primary weapon and armor of our raiders is their speed. They can be in and out of villages leaving them burning husks before the Drakanadians more than know that they've gone through their lines. I know it sounds a simple matter to have the villagers gather up their necessaries but you would be surprised when ones house is about to be burned what suddenly becomes 'necessary.' Waiting most of a day for villagers to load carts that can't possibly be hidden then making them discard what can't be carried completely removes our advantages and leaves the brave men going into enemy territory even more vulnerable than they already are."

Tara walked out into the sun wishing more than anything that Bonnie was here to deal with all this. Tara didn't think it unduly arrogant to say she was a smart person but running a kingdom, particularly during a war, took a different sort of person than Tara. At least she could comfort herself with the knowledge that the war was going well, as much as she objected to how the raiding was being carried out it was simple fact that if the war wasn't going well they wouldn't be able to undertake operations like that.

"Taking a break from the circus?" Tara hadn't noticed Felix wheeling up behind her and jumped several inches in surprise, "Didn't mean to surprise you like that but you looked kinda steamed coming outside and I thought you might want someone to vent to."

"Sorry," Tara winced a bit at just how much she'd worn her emotions on her sleeve, "I'm just not cut out for warfare. I get that everything we're doing is necessary, everyone from both the Rockwall Kingdom and the Three Kingdoms says that all the raiding is hurting the Drakanadians in a big way. But I just can't get it out of my head that those are real people this is happening to, they haven't done anything to anyone and they're just trying to get on with their lives when the world is going crazy around them and we're bringing it all down on their heads. I guess it's good I haven't been in charge the whole time, if everyone thought like me the Drakanadians would have already won."

"That's not true," Felix said as the two walked away from the village and out into the woods, "if everyone thought like you the Drakanadians wouldn't have attacked in the first place."

"That's sweet," Tara allowed herself the tiniest of smiles, "I still like getting out into the woods whenever I can. I didn't have many opportunities to get out the last several months and when I could come and go I didn't nearly as often as I should have. I know I need to get back though, way too much needs doing for me to just wonder around like this."

"I don't think the Rockwall Kingdom will fall into the sea if you spend some time looking after yourself," Felix navigated the rough road quite deftly in his wheelchair, "I think you can do a lot more to help get the Drakanadians out of the Rockwall Kingdom if you aren't flipping out and stressed to the breaking point. Besides if anyone deserves a break after having the world fall down on their head it's you."

"Excuse me," Tara and Felix looked down the road to see a man in tattered clothing walking down the road, "is this where the army is making its headquarters these days? I'm Gil Moss and I have a message for them if it is."

"It is," Tara said as she and Felix met the traveler, "I'm actually princess Bonnie's regent so if you want to give the message to me you can head on into town. I'm sure there's a hot meal and a bath waiting for you there."

"My lucky day," Gil smiled, "the message was for you and this saves me probably hours of waiting to see you." He reached into his travel sack, as he pulled his hand out Tara noticed the glint of metal and was already diving back as the knife passed through where she had been less than a second before.

Felix wasted no time reacting as he shoved Gil to the ground by simply running into him on his wheelchair. Barely managing to not fall out of the wooden seat Felix proceeded to add insult and further injury to Tara's would be assassin by very deliberately backing over his knife hand with an audible snap as the bone broke under the weight. While in the castle Tara could only react to all the injury piled on her with stoic indifference, out here though all the fear and hate that had been building up in the normally very good natured girl finally boiled over. Tara grabbed the knife from the ground and straddling her fallen foe plunged the knife into Gil's chest over and over again.

Still in no small shock from what had just happened as well as more than a little horrified at what he was watching Felix sat watching until Gil's chest was bloody ribbons and he couldn't have said whether more of his blood was still in his body or had spurted onto Tara. Tara finally dropped the knife and knelt there sobbing out all the suffering she had been through since the war started. When Felix silently wheeled up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder she threw both arms around him and continued to sob uncontrollably into his shirt that was rapidly being soaked with both tears and blood. Some time later that was how the soldiers sent out to look for Tara found the two.

-Upperton-

"Give it to me," Kim was still somewhat dizzy as she walked over to pick up her sword, "just how bad has Erik screwed us over?"

"The Drakanadians are invading," Josh put it as bluntly as he could, "if what I found is right they're putting troops ashore several hours north of the city. Erik probably fed them the locations of all our sentry towers some time ago. Near as I can tell he had people ready to take out those towers and give the Drakanadians a gap in our coverage to get a whole army ashore. That building going up in flames was a signal to him that he should kill you. They were hoping that it would throw the city and army into chaos and they'd be able to just about walk in and take the city without resistance."

"They came too close," Kim dug through the piles of paper on the floor that had been thrown from her desk looking for a map, "they definitely picked the best time to land. Our army was out practicing all day and they're exhausted, I'll bet the Drakanadians spent the day relaxing and staying fresh for this. Did Erik's papers mention anything about the Drakanadians bringing siege engines?"

"I don't remember," Josh wished he'd brought those papers with him even though he knew it would have been impractical, "even if they did it would probably be better to pull back into the city. Let them camp outside the walls as long as they want. I read that the Drakanadians were having trouble trying to find people to burn the docks, as long as they can't do that we can resupply the army indefinitely. We'll send word of the landing tonight and in a few weeks the Drakanadians will be stuck between us and armies marching from Middleton and Lowerton."

"We can bring in a lot of food by sea," Kim sighed, "but the Drakanadians timed it just right. In the First Invasion they attacked just after harvest, the city's granaries were full to bursting. It's the middle of winter right now and the city has far more people inside now than it did then. We might be able to keep enough people fed long enough if we can bring in all the food we can by sea. But the Drakanadian navy is going to have something to say about that, plus if the Drakanadians brought any kind of big siege engines they might be able to reach the docks and then we can't bring in any food. There's lots of farms and little towns north of the city, if I were the Drakanadians once I was sure we knew they'd landed I'd want to drive as many of those people into Upperton as I could and give us more mouths to feed."

"Even if we don't have a full scale battle north of the city we have to at least try to slow them down," Josh walked over to Kim's desk to look over the map she'd pulled out, "we'll also have to start getting as many civilians out of the city and moving west as fast as possible so we don't have to feed them. But we're going to have to use soldiers to make sure they aren't trying to take everything they own with them and we'll need to give them food so they don't starve halfway to Middleton."

"Damn," Kim dropped into her seat and started rubbing her temples, "Erik gave them everything they need to put the screws to us. If we want to avoid complete panic in a city the size of Upperton we're going to have to use more than a few soldiers. And every one of those soldiers is someone we can't send to slow the Drakanadians down. Not to mention feeding all those people long enough for them to get away from the city is going to be a big hit to our food stores. The evacuees will have to get practically to your parents lands before they're far enough away from the city we haven't been all but stripping the land bare to feed the army."

"We should use the troops who were garrisoning the city and defending during the exercises today as much as we can in the counter-attack," Josh tried to ignore the smell beginning to permeate the small room from where Erik's bowels had released on his death, "an open field battle like this is something they've all trained for and they won't be nearly so exhausted from marching even if we meet the Drakanadians somewhere in the middle."

"Whatever we're going to do we need to do it in a hurry," Kim walked out from behind her desk, sword in hand, and paused only to kick Erik's corpse as she walked out of her study, "let's go wake everyone up and stop the Drakanadians in their tracks. They're getting beat up in the Rockwall Kingdom and if they can't get a foothold here whether we want to invade afterwards or not we win."

Josh had wondered for some time where the mysterious missing Drakanadian army was. Now in front of him in the dawn light was the decidedly unpleasant answer to that question. He wasn't sure whether the Drakanadian banners before him were of noble houses or military units but he was entirely sure that there were far too many for his comfort not to mention his chances of continued survival. Most of the army in front of him was foot soldiers; Josh couldn't imagine horses being much use hours at most after such a long sea voyage. But there were still plenty of mounted Drakanadians, whether they'd somehow landed the horses earlier, taken horses when they landed, or were just using sick horses Josh couldn't have said.

"We've got more horse, and lots more heavy cavalry that we can use," Josh looked over to see Kim with the same pensive look he imagined was on his face, "but there's just so many of them. No wonder we were able attack like we did in the Rockwall Kingdom, all the Drakanadians came here."

"That means a lot of ships," Josh tried to slide his breastplate into a better fit over the chain mail underneath, "even if they didn't bring enough to beat the Royal Navy they'll probably sink enough if we don't stop them here that we won't be able to bring in nearly enough food to Upperton."

"Aren't you just full of good news today," Kim sounded even unhappier than she looked, "any thoughts on the plan of attack? Part of me wants to run the heavy knights up the shore and cut the Drakanadians off from evacuation if their ships ever show up. But that's sandy ground and I don't know how well a few thousand pounds of horse, knight, and armor will do running down it."

"The Drakanadians have a lot of spears," Josh found the veritable forest glinting steel points hard to miss, the Drakanadians must have felled a decent size forest to equip that many men and build as many ships as they had to move them, "I don't know if it's going to be practical to try a massed cavalry charge anywhere to start with. I think for now we're better off staying put. Our soldiers are almost all exhausted and every minute of rest we give them is better for us, plus we're on a hill that's a fairly decent defensive position. Our biggest advantage right now though is time, the Drakanadians probably can't resupply from their ships for long, they've probably sailed most of their fleet to meet our own and a lot of ships are going to sink or burn. Plus we sent word to Middleton, every day they spend here is another day another army is moving closer to them."

Evidently the Drakanadian commanders had been having a discussion that reached the same conclusion. Before Kim could respond horns sounded, shouts echoed, and the unmistakable sound of several tens of thousands of men all marching together began to slowly thunder towards their hill.

"So much for a plan of attack," Kim said, "signal all the knights to dismount and get into the line on the far left. Give ground as we need to in order to keep the line stable, we have plenty of ground between us and Upperton and I want to kill as many Drakanadians before we get back to the city as we can."

Bannermen started waving giant flags to signal that the knights should dismount and put aside their lances, meanwhile a whole host of message runners sprinted off to deliver Kim's orders to the army.

"This whole giving command to the princess just because I'm part of the royal family is pretty silly," Kim turned away from the steadily advancing horde, "I mean I've never commanded men in real battle. If I wasn't the princess I wouldn't even be here, and now I'm just in charge like that."

"None of the generals here have been in the Rockwall Kingdom," Josh pointed out, "that means they haven't commanded men in real battle either. I know I'm hardly a genius but what I've fought the Drakanadians and what you're doing seems like a good idea."

"I guess we'll find out if I know what I'm doing when all this is over." Kim all of a sudden sounded far less certain of herself than she had moments ago.

In the old stories battle was always a matter between two honorable combatants, if bows and arrows were going to be used the archers would always wait until the very last minute to only fire off one volley. Josh knew better than that and the commanders of the archers did too, as soon as the Drakanadians got close enough an almost silent whooshing sound carried back as arrow upon arrow leapt into the sky. The Drakanadians, equally pragmatic combatants, simply raised their shields as they continued to run forward. Despite their shields arrows still found their mark and the thunder of feet was joined with the cries of the wounded. Josh was under no illusions that arrows alone would stop the huge number of Drakanadians attacking and his expectations were not dashed as the many surviving Drakanadians continued on as inexorably as before.

Even before the first volley had landed another was on its way to thin the ranks of attacking Drakanadians. The Three Kingdoms though were not the only side that had brought bows, Drakanadian arrows began their own flight as well. With the advantage of not moving the Drakanadian arrows found their mark less often but some still won through the mass of shields raised against them and the cries of the wounded began to echo from both sides of the battle. Josh watched as several more volleys from each side arced across the sky and then the wave of attacking Drakanadians crashed into the defenses. No one could fault the Drakanadian soldiers for a lack of bravery, Josh sometimes thought them lacking in initiative but certainly they were willing to throw themselves headlong into a wall of waiting steel.

Josh didn't need to be more than the mediocre soldier he was to see that the Three Kingdoms couldn't hold back the massive Drakanadian onslaught with what they had in the field. Too many soldiers had been sent north to the Rockwall Kingdom to help fight there and too many had stayed behind to keep order in Upperton. If that many soldiers had still been in the field here and now or if the soldiers had had time to dig trenches like up in the Rockwall Kingdom it may have been a different matter but grudging though it may have been the Drakanadians started pushing the Three Kingdoms from one hill south to the next. The dismounted knights in their armor provided a near impenetrable wall on the far left flank that many times kept the Drakanadians from turning the grinding retreat into a chaotic rout. Even so it was only a matter of time until the lines broke somewhere, the Drakanadians were taking more casualties but they had brought many more men. Every fallen Kingdom soldier was one less to hold the lines while every fallen Drakanadian soldier was quickly replaced by a new attacker.

The first crack came in the center of the lines, the Drakanadians hadn't committed their own heavy horse until then and they chose the worst possible spot to do so. The center of the lines was held by the most exhausted troops and against armored shock cavalry with lances they didn't stand a chance. Crammed into a narrow area the Drakanadian advantage in numbers wasn't as effective as it could be but once there was a breach in Kingdom lines the Drakanadians had ample men to pour into the breach. Unsurprisingly they made straight for where Josh and Kim were waiting just back of the battle. Fortunately at least one of the prior owners of the Lotus Blade knew what he was doing on top of a horse and Josh made good use of that knowledge.

The Drakanadian knights who made the first hole in the line were still holding that breach so the first men to come charging forward were undisciplined foot soldiers. Spurring his horse forward Josh and the rest of Kim's guards met the attackers head on. Josh relieved a dirty looking bearded man of an arm before using his horse to plow another to the ground and stomp him to death. For every Drakanadian Josh hacked down though it seemed that three more took his place. Before long the rest of the army would have to fall back in head long retreat or be surrounded and completely wiped out, it was small solace that at the southern-most end of the fighting Josh would have a slight head start when the running began.

The horn off to the west made the battle stop for a brief instant as its low resonating note pierced the constant din of fighting. As Josh looked to the west and saw the banners of the army on the horizon he had to blink several times to convince himself he wasn't hallucinating. Josh didn't pretend to know the sign of every noble house in the Three Kingdoms but the sheer number of banners meant that most of those houses were represented in the army cresting the low rise at a full run towards the battle nearer the coast. Seeing a second army headed towards them the Drakanadians could only watch as their carefully laid plans fell apart on the verge of success. With their lines thinned from losses and stretched out over the battlefield the Drakanadians had nowhere near the mass needed to hold back the wings of knights who crashed into their flanks. What had been rapidly turning into a rout of the Three Kingdoms quickly became a slaughter of Drakanadians, with their boats at sea trying to draw the Royal Navy out the Drakanadians had nowhere to run and while many threw down their weapons and went into captivity many more fought to the bitter end. By the time it was all over the sun was well into the western sky and Josh felt like the day had lasted years.

"Not that I'm complaining," Josh saw that Kim's sword had enough blood on it and her mail armor had several tears to show that she'd done more than a little fighting, "but we just sent out a message this morning, how did a whole army get here that fast?"

"I think I can answer that Kimmie-cub," Josh turned around to see Kim's dad walking up to the two of them. For being a royal family the Possible family wore very plain and utilitarian armor, a trait not shared by all their nobles. "Awhile back we got some information from our spy in the Rockwall Kingdom that wasn't complete. About ten days ago our spy got that missing part of the message to us; it said the Drakanadians were going to be landing near Upperton. This morning as we were nearing the city a man on horse was coming down the road and told us just where to come, it was a long ride but here we are."

"That…" Kim was at least able to grope for words; which was more than Josh was capable of at the moment. The odds against an army made up of reinforcements waiting for deployment showing at just the right time were staggeringly low yet that was exactly what had happened.

"Relax Kimmie," Kim's dad wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders as the three of them started south with the rest of the army, "I don't think we'll be invading Drakanada anytime soon but we've won this round."

As the army trudged south in tired victory Josh pondered the end of this war and wondered when the next one would come.

AN: There you have it, the penultimate chapter of The Ninja and the Princess. I'm not sure if the epilogue will be rolled into next chapter or get its own posting but we're coming down to the wire either way. Lengthy battle scenes are a pain to write and I see now why every fantasy author I've ever read tries to make them as short and arching as possible. Likewise endings are a pain, I just realize I've left myself Tara's storyline to wrap up, Ron and Bonnie's, and the epilogue, why oh why did I do that to myself? In retrospect I'm disappointed with myself for not giving Kim nearly enough chances to open up a can on someone, Josh saved her last chapter then her dad this one. I'm almost tempted to make the Drakanadians win this fight so the war can go on and Kim can get her day in the sun. I won't though, the story is over and I have to accept I wrote myself into that. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the end of this part of the story, the final chapter will be up next Friday. Oh and good job getting out to the polls Tuesday, poxes revoked.


	26. Carry on my Wayward Son

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: One last time folks, I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty Five: Carry on my Wayward Son

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume III, subject Creation–

There are numerous faiths throughout the Three Kingdoms, each with their own beliefs on how the world came to be. Per the royal writ laying out its mission the Academy takes no stand on religion, this article will therefore only cover the two most widely believed stories of creation and offer no judgments on the veracity of anything herein.

The most widely believed story of creation is that of the Asharans. Asharans believe that a state of chaos persisted eternally backwards and at the beginning of our universe a small part of that chaos manifested into The Creator. As He grew The Creator began to comprehend that He was alone in the chaos and from that loneliness was born the universe as we know it. The Creator fashioned the chaos of eternity into the stars and the world, a process Asharans say took untold lifetimes. Once He had created a universe He found beautiful and a world that could shelter His creations Asharans believe The Creator then meditated many more lifetimes on the life to fill the world. Upon completing His meditations The Creator brought into being the first pairs of men and women into the world. For events occurring after creation in the Asharan mythos please consult the relevant entry. Additionally a copy of the Asharan Kojiki is kept on hand at all academy repositories.

The second most believed major story of creation stems from the Followers of Chronos. The Followers of Chronos are a polytheistic religion as opposed to the Asharans monotheism. The Followers of Chronos believe that the gods, led by Chronos, exist in a timeless and eternal heaven separate from our world. Chronos it is said created the first two humans on a whim, something the Followers of Chronos believe the gods are wont to do. Following the creation of man and woman the other gods became jealous for their worship. The pantheon of the Followers of Chronos is extensive to say the least and even a partial chronicling of the myriad gods who participated in the formation of the various parts of the universe and the world would be impractically lengthy. A copy of the Followers Holy Book is kept in every repository of the academy. Readers are cautioned that the Holy Book extends two million words over fifty volumes; the creation of the world is one of these volume occupying almost twenty thousand words. Avoiding specifics the gods designed the world and filled it with plants, animals, and natural beauty in an effort to win the worship of the first groups of humans. The Followers of Chronos typically pay homage to several gods at one time and may change their allegiance multiple times through their lives.

There are a number of other faiths throughout the Three Kingdoms, each with their own beliefs on how the universe and the world came to be. Copies of their scriptures are kept on hand at academy repositories. For all inquiries regarding religious topics seekers are encouraged to consult with the various members of each faith as academy librarians and scientists are not trained in theology.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Tara had never heard all the bells in the capital ring at once. The last time they would have all tolled would have been for either the death of Bonnie's grandparents or when her parents were crowned, and even then it would have been a slow mournful tolling. In either event Tara hadn't even been born to hear the cacophony of bells as every bell ringer sought to outdo his counterparts. The unceremonious expulsion of the Drakanadians though was plenty to inspire celebration among the people and every bell in the city was ringing to mark that celebration. The Drakanadians hadn't been completely removed from the Rockwall Kingdom, they still were fighting plenty hard up around the forts that marked the border, but it was only a matter of time before every inch of the kingdom was scoured of the invaders.

Tara had never worn anything as fancy as the dress she had on at the moment either. Up until Connie and Lonnie had decided to make her life miserable she had never worn any particularly shoddy or roughspun clothes for that matter. As Bonnie's 'regent' though while the people believed she was off hunting her sisters Tara wasn't merely at the side of court functions she was in the middle of them and had to look the part. Frankly she cared little for all the frills and laces and poofery that went with court wear and understood much better why Bonnie always wanted to sneak out and get into less fancy clothes. The other castle servants seemed to take quite a bit of delight in needling Tara for her sudden rise in station but that had only come after their dumbfounded amazement at her survival. Connie and Lonnie had apparently decided not to admit to the fiasco that had been Tara's near execution and instead had told everyone that she was dead and the body had already been burned.

Not everyone in the city was celebrating though. Just as Tara had thought the many more people in the city meant far more collaborators. Following the attempt on her life by the Drakanadians and finding out that a collaborator had been the one to tell the Drakanadians where to find her Tara had far fewer problems sending them to the headsman or the deepest and darkest dungeons under the castle. Those were of course only the collaborators who lived long enough to fall into royal hands, the people in the city had been some of the first to be conquered by the Drakanadians and they were taking out the anger of a long occupation on those who had backed the wrong side. Smoke from several still burning fires meant Tara watched snow fall from the sky through a slight haze as she looked out over the city. The Drakanadians had been quite ready to turn the city and castle into a bloodbath but the allies had simply started going around the city. Judging that their enemies would be ruthless enough to starve the defenders out at the cost of the civilians, Tara didn't know if that was true or not and didn't want to find out, the Drakanadians had decided the soldiers in the city could be better used to the north and had pulled out. As had happened elsewhere a number of collaborators went with them leaving those who stayed to face the wrath of a suddenly vengeful populace. In the city though there had been enough collaborators that they didn't quietly take the judgment of their peers, that fighting had left a number of people dead and was responsible for most of the fires burning. The Drakanadians had tried to fire the city as they left but like so many other places when the Drakanadians had pulled out the local people had harassed them the whole way out, as much as the Drakanadians wanted to put the city to the torch they wanted more to live through the experience so they had lit only a few fires that had quickly been put out once they left.

With the Drakanadians finally all but gone from the Rockwall Kingdom its people had finally started to take stock of what the war had done to their land. Judging from what had happened to the land and people around his village Felix had guessed a full generation to recover from the war was far from the worst case scenario. Tara had dragged him along to help her run the kingdom in Bonnie's absence and the more they heard from around the kingdom the more she thought his offhand remark had been in fact quite prophetic.

"Hey," as if the thought of him had summoned him Felix came wheeling up to the balcony Tara was standing at looking out over the city, "glad to be home?"

"Yeah," Tara turned around to lean back against the railing, "being home isn't quite as nice as being home without Connie, Lonnie, or the Drakanadians to worry about. I guess we still have to worry about them as long as they have Bonnie but I don't think they'll try coming south again. I never thanked you for coming up here, I kind of dragged you along to have a familiar face with me at court. I know lots of people in the city but no one who can hobnob with the rich and powerful."

"I'm not exactly rich," Felix laughed, "and I don't think being on my village council makes me particularly powerful. But it's no problem, I haven't gotten out of my village much since the accident and I definitely have to admit I've never travelled in that much style."

The royal family would normally have its own carriages to travel in, of course with the invasion those had been stolen or burned so Tara and Felix had travelled by horseback. They had however travelled with a guard several hundred strong and rested in tents larger and fancier than many houses. A saddle maker had even been commissioned to make a saddle just for Felix. Tara had seen the finery of the royal family her whole life but had never experienced it like on that trip.

"Anyways," Felix ignored the cold and snow just as much as Tara, "your advisors have finished drawing up plans for Bonnie's coronation when she gets back from Drakanada. I think we're both okay with letting them keep thinking that's an absolute certainty. Less good news is I've got the latest estimates from around the kingdom of just how many people we've lost. As long as we're still fighting them up north it won't be a final estimate, for that matter I don't know if we'll ever have an exact figure from all this chaos. But we've finally had time to send people out to the more remote hamlets and farms. The Drakanadians definitely did their worst where there were lots of people and where it made sense for them to send soldiers but they hardly left the more remote areas of the kingdom alone. Like I said I don't think we'll ever have an exact figure but throwing all these numbers together I wouldn't be surprised if close to forty thousand of our people wound up dead by the time this is all over."

"Forty thousand?" Tara could feel herself grow pale at the number, "there aren't even two million people in the whole Rockwall Kingdom. Even if we can rebuild all the houses in a generation it's going to take decades to make up that kind of dent in our population. And if Bonnie doesn't come back it could get even worse, everyone is fine with me here as long as they think I'm just keeping the throne warm for Bonnie but I don't want to take over and I don't want to think about what would happen if it looked like I might."

"Bonnie will be back," Felix even managed to sound like he meant it, "she's gotten out from under the Drakanadians before and she can pull it off again. Now come on, you've got medals to pin on wounded soldiers. I'll tell you who they are and what they did on the way."

Tara followed Felix with a sigh. Like the whole kingdom those wounded soldiers were trying to put themselves back together after losing a large part of themselves. Tara didn't think she'd be handing out medals to soldiers on their deathbeds but even so wounds could weaken and kill long after they were given. Walking back into the castle Tara thought that she, the soldiers, and the whole kingdom would have to ignore all the 'what ifs' and soldier on.

-Drakanada-

"Hello Ron," Bonnie's voice sent shivers down Ron's spine, "you just missed a wonderful reunion with my sisters."

"Bonnie," Ron kept a distance between them more than long enough for him to do whatever he needed to with the Lotus Blade, it's previous owners already giving him suggestions how to disable Bonnie without killing or permanently injuring her, "I guess your sisters finally got what's been coming to them for awhile. Now let's get out of here before anyone else shows up."

"Why would I want to do that?" Bonnie seemed almost surprised that Ron wanted to escape, "After everything the Drakanadians have done for me I've sworn fealty to them for both myself and the Rockwall Kingdom."

"What are you talking about Bonnie?" Ron quietly slid his feet into a position that would let him jump any number of ways if it came to the worst, "the Drakanadians killed your parents, invaded and ravaged your country, and to top it off they kidnapped and tortured you. Why would you want to work with them?"

"Torture?" Bonnie laughed, "Oh I thought it was torture at first, I spat fire right back at them and tried to ride it out. But eventually I saw the truth, all that hate and pain I've been feeling aren't things I need to bottle up. Shego showed me how to use them to make myself stronger than I could have ever thought possible, my sisters thought I was still the little girl who just ran and cried from them, but one touch and I paid back all the years of torment. My parents weren't any better, I have power over life and death and they wanted me to use it to fix broken bones. They were weak and they took the Kingdom with them. With the Drakanadians help I'll take what should be mine."

"They're lying to you," years of training were the only thing that kept the Lotus Blade steady in Ron's hands, "the Drakanadians are just trying to use you as a pawn."

"Oh I went through all that too," Bonnie sighed as if trying to explain something complicated to a child, "and I can see you're not going to listen to reason. I've seen what you can do when you get over all those pesky limitations, you could be just as powerful as I am if you wanted. But you're going to use that power for all the wrong reasons so I'll just have to put a stop to you here and now."

Ron didn't know whether Bonnie needed skin to skin contact to drain his life or whatever dark powers she'd picked up, he did not however want to find out anything about those powers or how they worked. Jumping sideways he kept holding the Lotus Blade to keep at least that much distance between him and Bonnie at all times. Bonnie knew just how good he was with the Lotus Blade and she knew from the distance she was at she couldn't make it to Ron before he could hit her with the Lotus Blade. Ron would of course never kill Bonnie unless he had no other choice but the threat of harm of some sort was enough to keep her at bay while he thought of a plan B.

"Listen to me Bonnie," Ron groped for a plan B, really more plan C, he'd been on plan B since Brick died, "I've had my run in with all that dark magic stuff too. You said it yourself. And I got past it just fine, I know you're lots smarter than I am so there's no way you should be falling for this."

"Waste of time," Bonnie's eyes were plainly looking for an opening in Ron's defense, "I've seen how much more powerful the magic the Drakanadians use is. You might have beaten back the first wave but when I prove myself by killing you I'll be put at the head of the next invasion with an army of magic users behind me. You won't see it of course but we'll tear apart anything that stands in our way."

"That includes all your friends?" Ron spotted his opening even as he had to jump back to keep Bonnie from making one of her own, "Brick came up here for you, he swore to defend you and he came all this way to keep that oath. He even died to get me this far just so I can save you. You know what his last words were, it wasn't asking for his mother or wondering what's after death, he told me to get you out of here. You really want to tear that apart? Tara's down in the Rockwall Kingdom still fighting the Drakanadians, if she doesn't see your new 'reason' are you going to tear her apart too?"

"Brick would have made it this far if he was stronger," the lapse before Bonnie snapped back told Ron he'd hit a nerve, "even holding yourself back you're way out of his league. But you can't keep this up forever, you won't kill me and sooner or later you'll make a mistake. Once you're out of the way and I go back home Tara will see that I'm right. Even when they were about to hang her she didn't give up, she might hide it behind that nice polite attitude but deep down I know what Tara's like."

"You didn't answer my question," Ron stopped their deadly dance to fix Bonnie's gaze, "what if Tara doesn't want a keg of whatever you're drinking? What if she says her best friend never came back from up here and she doesn't want anything to do with you? Are you really going to suck the life out of her like you did your sisters?"

"Of… of course I would," Ron didn't think Bonnie sounded particularly convincing even to herself, "I'm going to be queen of the Rockwall Kingdom when I get back. And a queen has to look out for all her people, even if she's my best friend Tara has to obey me or suffer the consequences."

"I don't think so," Ron surprised even himself by lowering the Lotus Blade, "I think you were angry enough at your sisters to lash out with all that hate and pain you've been bottling up. But I don't think you can just throw away everyone who's important to you like that. So go on, I don't think you're really that evil but if you are then do it."

Ron thought he had made a terrible mistake when Bonnie rushed at him but instead of grabbing him and draining the life from him she pounded her fists on his chest and started screaming "fight me!"

"It's gonna be okay," Ron could only wrap one arm around Bonnie since she had pinned his arm with the Lotus Blade between the two of them.

"No it's not," Bonnie's screams turned to sobbing, "I couldn't keep my parents alive, I couldn't keep my people safe, I couldn't even get my best friend out of my own home without getting kidnapped. I just wanted to keep everyone safe and I was so angry and Shego was there telling me all this stuff. I didn't say yes until Connie and Lonnie showed up but then they did and I just wanted to hurt them so much. After I gave in to all the anger it was just so easy, I toyed with them for days until you showed up making them feel all the pain they'd put everyone else through."

"Is Shego still here?" Ron wanted nothing more than to take Bonnie and head south as fast as they could but the Drakanadians apparently weren't done with the war and he couldn't leave Shego to lead an army of magic users in yet another round of fighting. Not if he wanted this war to last less than the twenty five years the First Invasion had consumed.

"Yeah," Bonnie rubbed her eyes dry and looked around before pointing down a tunnel, "Shego and the emperor are here. We're almost at the coast and that tunnel leads to a sort of cave that looks out over the ocean. It was fancied up awhile ago by someone and they're waiting there to hear how the landings near Upperton went."

"Feel up to ending this war? I'm not saying you should use that scary life stealing thing but I had a tough time against Shego the last time we fought and I could use some backup."

"I can't," Bonnie shook her head, "if I'm in front of her and she tells me to give into all the anger again I don't think I would be able to resist. Not exactly the backup you were hoping for. Tell me where you and Brick left your horses and I'll go get them ready to go and wait for you there."

Ron told her and after making sure what tunnel he was supposed to be going down he picked up the torch he had left sputtering on the ground and headed off once more into the darkness for what he dearly hoped was the end of this war.

Ron smelled the salt and heard the waves before he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. As he neared the light Ron could see a large throne carved from stone with someone sitting on it and someone standing just to the side as if they were expecting him. So much for surprise Ron glumly thought.

"We've been expecting you," Ron had no trouble recognizing Shego's voice, "I didn't think Bonnie was ready to face off with you just yet but I don't think you killed her so I can always get her back and finish her training."

"Shego," the man on the rock throne who Ron could only take to be the Drakanadian emperor said, "you forget your manners. This young man has come a long way to see us." The blue skinned man stood up and walked over to one of several piles of barrels scattered about the plaza, "Conquering the world is a thankless and time consuming task but I do like to tinker with inventions in my spare time and I have something special in these barrels. It's a little something I like to call ever fire, a special little concoction that burns hot and sticky and can't be put out with water. Although I don't think your friends will enjoy it as much as I do."

"Come on Dr. D." Shego sauntered towards Ron lighting up a hand with an almost idle flick of her wrist, "He doesn't care about your side projects. The little moron isn't even going to be alive long enough to see you use it."

"Fine Shego, you always spoil my fun. Just do away with him quickly, we have a busy day ahead of us."

"Nowhere to run this time little man," Ron drew the Lotus Blade as Shego smiled menacingly and dropped into an attack position.

The last time they'd fought Ron had come off worse for the exchange, but then he'd been worried about getting Tara and Bonnie away safely. While that admittedly had not gone particularly well this time he didn't have that particular worry weighing him down and he could put everything into fighting Shego.

No matter how many times it happened Ron still felt a small surprise when Shego's glowing hands stopped the Lotus Blade instead of parting like flesh normally would when it met sharpened steel. From the glint of anger in Shego's eyes she was just as used to her hands melting or breaking her opponent's weapons. The heat coming off her hands was unpleasant enough as it was and Ron didn't want to think about what might happened if she caught him near one of those barrels of ever fire with that kind of heat at her disposal. The small plaza was just that, probably a natural cave that the Drakanadians had enlarged for whatever reason. Regardless of how it had gotten that way there wasn't that much space to fight in. That led to a fight that consisted of a great deal of lunging in at the other then jumping back to avoid the inevitable counterattack.

Ron was very much thankful that his fight with Bonnie had consisted mostly of words and he had been able to come into this fight fresh. Shego was fast with her hands and a very, very good fighter. The extra reach the Lotus Blade gave him was a very welcome advantage. None of its previous owners however had ever fought anyone quite like Shego either and that dearth of experience was rather unsettling. Quickly both combatants were sweating even in the winter cold and neither had escaped several small wounds. For the green skin and freaky glowing hands Ron noticed that Shego's blood was the same red as anyone else's, at the same time too much of Ron's own blood was showing its color for his taste.

Ron quickly discovered that Shego's two hands made fighting her like fighting someone with two swords. That meant Ron was deprived of using the extra leverage of his sword in any lengthy engagement lest Shego simply pull back with one hand and spill his guts across the floor. There were of course ways to fight people using two swords, even without the experiences of the Lotus Blade's previous owners guiding him Ron knew that. But he and they both knew that against someone who knew what they were doing there was simply an inherent disadvantage in having one weapon versus two.

"Shego!" The shout startled both combatants, "Today if you don't mind. Some of us have a world to bend to our will and we'd like to start with the bending already."

"If you think you can do any better why don't you come over here and show me!" Shego didn't look away from Ron while snarking back denying him an opportunity to sneak an attack in.

Ron would never associate the word desperation with Shego, and he thought it was far more aggravation that motivated her to start flinging bolts of black speckled green energy at him rather than stick to the precision of her hands. Ron didn't know if it was insanity or genius that moved him in front of the flammable barrels but either way it had the desired result. Shego growled, stopped shooting energy at him and charged.

Things began to move quickly after that. Ron rolled to the side, well out of the range where he could attack Shego but also well out of range for her to jump him while he was getting back to his feet. Ron and Shego both noticed the fire Shego's hands had left on the barrel she had run into and both were running as fast as they could. Ron couldn't see what the Drakanadian emperor was doing but Ron realized that had jumped far down on his priority list just in time for the world to explode.

"Ron, Ron! Wake up!" Ron came back to consciousness to Bonnie's not so gentle slapping his face in an effort to prod him to wakefulness.

A million things began going through his mind as Ron realized he was in fact not dead. What came out though was "I thought you were going to get the horses."

If Bonnie was at all disturbed by his nonsensical question she didn't show it, "I was going but then you blew up the mountain. The first explosion must have only been a few barrels or you wouldn't have made it. As it is if I hadn't still been close enough to drag you out into the mineshaft and heal you up you probably wouldn't have made it. Barrels have been going off for awhile now and you were already pretty beat up."

"Doesn't hurt, must've done a good job patching me up." Ron sat up and quickly discovered that yes he did hurt, "Okay now it hurts, I thought you said you healed me."

"I did," Bonnie glared at him, "you had a broken leg, a concussion, more than a little blood loss. You're lucky all those clothes to hold back the cold also held back the heat or you would have had some serious burns. Like I said, you were really beat up and I didn't have time to heal everything. Now come on, there's no way the Drakanadians missed your little fire show and we need to get out of here in a hurry."

"What about Shego and the emperor?" Ron struggled to his feet relieved to find Bonnie had thought to grab the Lotus Blade on her way out of the burning plaza, "we can't let them get away."

"I don't know," Bonnie started dragging him down the tunnels, "the explosions brought down a lot of rock on top of the well you know explosions. You were plenty lucky to live long enough for me to get to you and I can't imagine they did any better."

Bonnie dragged him towards the surface at a rather unpleasant speed for someone in Ron's shape but even so he still heard several thuds from the way they had come that could only be more barrels of ever fire going up. As they got closer to the surface Ron became ever more glad for the several layers of wool under his boiled leather armor, the temperature had only gone down since he and Brick had stepped into the abandoned mine looking for Bonnie. Still Ron wouldn't be at all sad to get back to his heavy coat back at his horse. They made only one stop on their way out, at the pile of rocks Ron had made to cover Brick's body. Bonnie knelt for a few seconds next to the impromptu tomb in silent prayer. Ron didn't know whether Bonnie was Asharan or a Follower of Chronos, religion had never particularly come up in the mad flight for their lives.

As they walked out from the mine into the lightly falling snow Ron thought that Bonnie might still shortly meet her God or gods, all around them were several hundred Drakanadian soldiers. At their head was an older man who wore an embroidered tunic with ruffles at the chin in place of armor.

"Greetings," the man called as he rode ahead of his soldiers, "I am Señor Senior Senior, I have the honor to be the head of the Drakanadian general staff. I have heard a great deal about you two over the last several months; many of us think you two quite the pair of troublemakers."

"Um, thanks?" If talking kept them alive a little longer Ron was all in favor of it.

"I can see how you would think that a compliment," Señor Senior Senior laughed as he dismounted in front of the two escapees, "am I to take from the fact that you two are out here alive that the emperor is dead?"

"I don't know," Bonnie stepped in, "the whole plaza was exploding when I got there. I pulled Ron out but I didn't really have time to go looking."

"I shall send men to investigate this," Señor Senior Senior motioned and several soldiers ran into the mine while several more started scaling the mountain above, "if it is true then the two of you are free to go."

"What?" Both Ron and Bonnie had clearly heard the same madness, "Did I hear you right Mr. Señor Senior Senior?" Bonnie furthered

"Please, call me Senior, I so abhor the needless formalities." Senior said, "I do not think your people will attack mine without cause but as long as you are up here they will stop at nothing to recover you. The emperor had no heirs, had someone distinguished themselves in winning this war he would have named them his son or daughter but he is dead now and the empire will decide its next leader through force of arms. My son does not wish to follow in my footsteps, he would rather make music. I am old and have no wish to rule, I will leave the empire to its devices and sit this out. If you are gone he may escape the madness, if your people come we will unite to fight you and he cannot escape war. For that reason I wish you gone."

"So we just get to walk out then?" Ron was making sure his hands went nowhere near his weapons, "I don't wanna sound ungrateful or anything but it's really that easy?"

Senior laughed once again, "If you were Drakanadian killing the emperor would give you a claim to rule the empire. I will keep the news of what has happened here to myself for several days and I will send members of my personal guard, the Knights of Rodigan, to escort you to our border with you. From there I imagine you will be able to gain entrance to your lands. Remember what I have told you however, the empire may splinter behind many claimants to the throne but if your people come north we will put aside all our rivalries and not rest until you are driven away."

"No offense," Bonnie said, "but if it's another five hundred years till our people meet again it will be too soon."

Ten days later Ron and Bonnie were riding south with three armored men from Señor Senior Senior's personal bodyguard for an escort. Like the old man had promised no one had bothered them with an armored escort and though they didn't stop except to make camp and sleep no one seemed to have heard about what had happened to the emperor yet. As they neared the Rockwall Mountains there began a steady stream of men going north, many with bandages but many were simply groups of men going north. One of their escorts stopped a group to ask what had happened, the response being that the southerners had retaken all the forts and the army was retreating to regroup. A few days later the grim wall of the first border fortress slid over the horizon up the narrowing path through the mountains. Ron and Bonnie's escorts gave them a large white flag in hopes they wouldn't be shot by nervous troops as well as repeating Señor Senior Senior's warnings against coming north again, then they wheeled their horses north and Ron and Bonnie were alone.

"Ready to go home?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," Bonnie smiled, "I'm ready for this to be over."

AN: There you have it, the conclusion to the Ninja and the Princess. I'll put up the epilogue with my final thoughts next week but for all intents and purposes this is it. Ironically I never felt comfortable designing a religion for this world until the very end. The Asharans are a mix of Hindu and Zoroastrian mythology and the Followers of Chronos are a mix of Roman Paganism and Japanese Shinto mythology. They are of course entirely fictional, any resemblance beyond what I mentioned is unintentional, etc… Ever fire is of course based on Greek fire from the Byzantine Empire, I'd had it in my head from the beginning that I wanted to hoist Drakken by his own petard and that provided the perfect mechanism to do so. I will hopefully bring everything to an enjoyable conclusion with the epilogue next week but thanks all for coming along on the long journey of this story.


	27. Blessed are the Peacemakers

The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: One last time folks, I don't own Kim Possible!

Epilogue: Blessed are the Peacemakers

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from volume XCIII of General World History-

The Second Invasion was considerably shorter and less bloody than the First Invasion, lasting just over ten months compared to just under twenty five years. Nevertheless like its earlier counterpart the Second Invasion had significant impacts on the land and the people who lived through it. Exact numbers will likely never be known, record keeping of the time was far less precise than it is today and many of these less than precise records were destroyed. The other significant source of information, bards and heralds, are two groups infamous for their exaggeration of numbers and events. One way to gain a fairly precise estimate is to work with the official estimates from governments around the time of the Second Invasion and compare them to the one area of record keeping that was precise even in those times. Then as now tax records are kept in the most exacting fashion, this is of course because governments have a natural desire to maximize their tax revenues and precise records are a must in order to do this. By comparing these exacting records to the estimates and outlandish claims made at the time we are able to adjust figures up and down to what is believed to be a fair count of the body toll of the Second Invasion.

The initial estimate for casualties from the Rockwall Kingdom was around thirty five to forty thousand dead with up to twice that number injured in combat, raids, or worked to exhaustion requiring significant recovery by the Drakanadian invaders. Modern scholars have moved the number of people killed up and the number of living casualties down. It is now believed that the Rockwall Kingdom lost approximately forty six thousand people out of a population of just under two million. Of this number around thirty thousand were civilians with the largest number of them dying in the initial Drakanadian move southward when terror tactics were routinely employed and 'investigations' of sabotage or acts against the invaders consisted of rounding up a number of people from the surrounding countryside and summarily executing them on the hope that the guilty party or parties would be among that number. Similarly the greatest number of deaths in the army occurred during the beginning weeks of the Second Invasion before the battle lines turned into static trench systems. As deadly as attacking them was it was far more dangerous to shove large numbers of troops against each other without cover in an era where crossbows and longbows were rampant and the technology and tactics to withstand heavy cavalry on open ground had not yet been developed. Estimates of living casualties were placed between seventy five and eighty thousand, these have since been lowered to seventy three to seventy five thousand.

Civilian losses for the Three Kingdoms are small enough to have been counted exactly, of the six thousand three hundred and eighty one civilians in the Rockwall Kingdom on the day the Second Invasion started one thousand nine hundred seventy two of them perished. During their failed attempt to land north of Upperton and capture the city the Drakanadians passed through several small settlements before meeting the main kingdom army and in passing through these small settlements the Drakanadians left behind four hundred and eight bodies. Rumors that the few Drakanadian troops who did escape the landing kidnapped kingdom civilians and returned them to Drakanada persist but remain unsubstantiated. As in the First Invasion the Three Kingdoms bore the primary military burden of defeating the Drakanadians, it is therefore unsurprising that the Three Kingdoms suffered a higher number of military casualties during the war. Contemporaries placed the military deaths of the Three Kingdoms at around nineteen thousand, though it should be noted some exaggerated stories placed the death toll at upwards of fifty thousand. Examination of other records of the time allows us to utterly dismiss the wildly out of proportion figures given by those whose livelihood depended on amazing crowds with stories and to put forth a figure of twenty three to twenty five thousand military deaths in the span on ten months.

Such high figures are typically considered to have been caused by several factors, notably that the allies were principally attacking Drakanadian lines after the first phase of the war and that the Second Invasion occurred in an era before antibiotics were discovered among numerous other medical advances made since. Though the concept of germ theory was understood by some at that point in time there were few ways to prevent or eliminate infections.

The offhand remark by Felix Renton that a generation's time would be necessary for recovery was if anything optimistic. Economic output in the Rockwall Kingdom did not reach pre-war levels until AU 547. It should be noted that population had recovered by AU 535 but a series of harsh winters and dry summers conspired to keep more people involved in subsistence agriculture for some time after population equality had been reached. The Three Kingdoms had been spared the devastation of much of the Rockwall Kingdom and subsequently recovered faster. Naval technology had improved during the war as a result of the theoretical yet ultimately unrealized demands an invasion of Drakanada would have required. The increase in cargo capacity over range allowed for the first settlements to be made of the small islands permitting global circumnavigation to be made in AU 610.

Though never used in combat during the Second Invasion, fire powder is undisputedly the most important invention to come out of that period of history. From its development in AU 512 fire powder was quickly improved and within sixty years it had all but rendered obsolete the weapons of millennia before it. The armored knights who had won the day north of Upperton continued on for a few more decades after this until advancements in firesticks meant the armor required to protect its wearer was too thick to wear. Fire powder also spelled obsolescence for the great castles erected at such expense over the centuries. Large firesticks known as thunder tubes could shortly after their development hurl rocks weighing several hundred pounds a near equal number of yards, something no castle wall could withstand.

Likewise the Drakanadians were not idle during this period. It is not known exactly when fire powder penetrated into Drakanada, from available records we can conclude that by AU 520 the Drakanadians were aware if not in possession of fire powder. The civil war following their defeat in the Second Invasion erupted fully in AU 513 as knowledge of the emperor's death became widespread. A state of general warfare and chaos persisted from AU 513 until at least AU 522, scholars dispute exactly when major combat between the claimants ended and the war became one of the victor hunting down the losers. What is known is that the winner of this civil war was a Drakanadian general by the name of Dementor, he had fought in the Rockwall Kingdom and it appears he was one of the first Drakanadians to become aware of fire powder.

Following the consolidation of the new order of things the Drakanadians once again turned their eyes outwards, not this time to the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom but instead to the multitude of small islands just then beginning to be colonized by the Three Kingdoms. From about AU 615 to AU 770 the two great realms seized various islands and gradually divided up much of the world. Technology of course continued to develop over the centuries. Though scholars at the time of its invention derided steam power as a fanciful delusion by AU 645 it had largely supplanted all other forms of energy. This lead to innumerable new technologies that are covered in their own articles as to list them here would defeat the purpose of this entry as covering general history.

In AU 803 the third and to date final war between Drakanada and its southern neighbors broke out. Armed with skycraft, crawlers, and all the other implements of mechanized warfare the Third Invasion began not with an attack directly on the Three Kingdoms and the Rockwall Kingdom but rather a series of landings on various islands designed to cut the southern allies off from the resources of their colonies. Only after securing those islands were landings made in the Three Kingdoms and an attack mounted on the Rockwall Kingdom. As in the First Invasion, Lowerton was the grave of so many Drakanadian plans and soldiers. Unlike the First Invasion new technology allowed the allies to maintain a proper supply line to attack Drakanada both directly and indirectly. In AU 805-806 the Three Kingdoms reclaimed all the islands that had been taken by the Drakanadians as well as seizing many Drakanadian islands.

While again the allies quailed at the cost of invading Drakanada by the end of the Third Invasion there existed an alternative to invasion. Fission bombs gave the allies a weapon that not only did the Drakanadians not possess but that gave them the power to utterly destroy their enemy without setting foot in Drakanada. The inventors of these weapons did not understand concepts such as fallout and nuclear winter. Fortunately though a massive nuclear exchange was not necessary as one bomb dropped on their capital caused the Drakanadians to do something they had never before contemplated, surrender. With the surrender of the Drakanadians whole archives were opened up giving scholars access to a wealth of previously unimagined information that has not begun to be properly examined.

As for the major participants of the Second Invasion whose adventures were so painstakingly pieced together from interviews with them as well as eyewitness accounts from others, scholars of the academy have fielded a great number of questions about what happened to them after that war. Their lives are chronicled in separate stories that knowledge seekers are encouraged to examine if they have further questions. We close inquiries about them with the typical response, the end of the Second Invasion was not the end of their story.

-The End-

Lengthy AN which it's totally cool if you want to skip: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for bearing with me for so long, I present to you the final installment of The Ninja and the Princess. I drew inspiration for this story from innumerable places, everything from the Bible to the Iliad to contemporary media. Particular thanks goes to A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman, her chronicle of how much the 1300's AD sucked provided invaluable framework and ground level concepts I couldn't have done this without. The Three Kingdoms was named from the Chinese work The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and I took a few other things from there as well. Drakanada was inspired in its formation by the warring states periods in China and Japan and in its conduct by 19th century Russia which had a very expansionist foreign policy to obscure a brittle and inefficient domestic government. I should have explained this in the previous chapter but Senior's conduct was inspired by the Miracle of Brandenburg. During the Seven Years War the Russians were almost at the gates of Berlin and Frederick the Great was preparing to abdicate the throne to save his state when the Russian Empress Elizabeth died. Her successor wanted nothing to do with the war and Russian armies were withdrawn. Obviously this isn't a direct parallel but I hope the principle explains my thinking behind that scene.

As to what happens to the characters after this story, I prefer to leave that up to you. Not, I hope, out of any sense of laziness rather I prefer not to close off such an open horizon as their lives with my own opinions and ideas. The one clue I will give is that I think after everything I've put them through my characters in this story have earned their happily ever after. I took the opposite track with the world as a whole for the reason that while leaving the characters to your imagination seems to me setting them free leaving the whole world dangling would be an act of laziness. I considered several possible distant futures for the world before settling on one fairly similar to the Pacific Theatre of World War II, albeit still at an accelerated rate of development. The other finalist for those of you who are curious was a steampunk future, for no other reason than steampunk is cool.

I'd like to once again thank everyone for coming along on this journey into the madness that is my mind as well as sticking with me for so long. I ask once again your forgiveness for that little hiatus known as law school and hope that finishing this story is some sort of penance. As to what's next, well first I need a job for the simple reason that I need to know how it impacts my schedule for writing. It has been a wonderful journey putting this monster to keyboard and monitor and I am proud to declare it… over.


End file.
